THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

THE  LOGIC  OF  HIS  CAREER 


THEODORE   ROOSEVELT,   THEODORE  ROOSEVELT,   JR. 
AND  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT,  30 


THEODORE 
ROOSEVELT 

THE    LOGIC    OF    HIS 
CAREER 

BY 

CHARLES  G.  WASHBURN 


HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
BOSTON  AND   NEW  YORK  1916 


</5'/ 


COPYRIGHT,   1916,   BY   CHARLES  G.   WASHBURN 
ALL  RIGHTS   RESERVED 

Published  February  rqib 


TO 

The  Wife,  the  Children,  and  the  Grandchildren 

OF 
THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 


331291 


CONTENTS 


I.    FROM  THE  TIME  OF  HIS  GOING  TO  COLLEGE  IN  1876 

TO  HIS  ACCESSION  TO  THE  PRESIDENCY  IN  1901  .  I 
Roosevelt  in  College  —  Service  in  the  Legislature  — 
Interest  in  Literature,  Hunting,  Travel  —  Repub 
lican  Candidate  for  Mayor  of  New  York  —  Civil 
Service  Commissioner  —  Police  Commissioner  — 
Assistant  Secretary  of  the  Navy  —  Lieutenant-Colonel 
of  the  Rough  Riders  —  Governor  of  New  York  — 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States  —  President. 

II.  CHANGING  SOCIAL  AND  INDUSTRIAL  CONDITIONS  .  43 
Convention  of  1 904  —  New  Leadership  —  The  Trusts 
and  the  Railroads  —  Northern  Securities  Case  — 
-  The  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Act  —  The  Negro  Ques 
tion  —  Booker  Washington  —  Discharge  of  Negro 
Regiment  at  Brownsville  —  The  Labor  Question. 

III.  ROOSEVELT  AND  THE  MONROE  DOCTRINE  ...      89 
The    Monroe    Doctrine  —  Foreign    Policy  —  The 
Army   and    Navy  —  Nobel    Prize  —  Arbitration  — 
Treaties  —  Preparedness  —  Merchant  Marine  —  The 
Tariff — Conservation  —  Relations  with  Congress  — 

'-   Legislation  during  his  Administration  —  Tennessee 
•  Coal  and  Iron  Company  —  End  of  his  Term. 

IV.  THE  AFRICAN  AND  EUROPEAN  TRIPS      .      .      .      .144 
The  Vatican  Incident  —  Return   to    New  York  — 
Campaigns  of  1912  —  Recall  of  Judicial  Decisions. 

V.    ROOSEVELT'S  PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  —  CON 
CLUSION      196 

APPENDIX 217 

The  Carnegie  Hall  Address. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

THE  THREE  T.  R.'s    ........  Frontispiece 

Photograph  by  Walter  Scott  Shirir, 


THEODORE  ROOSEVELT  ON  HIS  GRADUATION  FROM  HAR 
VARD  COLLEGE  IN  1880       ........       4 

Photograph  by  Notman,  Boston 

FACSIMILE  OF  LETTER  WRITTEN  BY  ROOSEVELT  AFTER  HIS 
ELECTION  TO  THE  NEW  YORK  ASSEMBLY  IN  1881      .        8 

ROOSEVELT  IN  1897     ..........     22 

Photograph  by  Rockivood,  189? 

ROOSEVELT  WHEN  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES     .    1  1  8 

Photograph  by  E.  S.  Curtit,  1904 

MR.    AND    MRS.   ROOSEVELT    WITH    THEIR    GRANDSON 
RICHARD  DERBY,  JR  ..........    196 

Photograph  by  the  Campbell  Studio,  1915   \ 


THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

CHAPTER  I 

FROM  THE  TIME    OF    HIS    GOING    TO    COLLEGE  IN 
1876  UNTIL    HE    BECAME    PRESIDENT   IN   190! 

1HAVE  known  Theodore  Roosevelt  since  we 
entered  Harvard  together  in  the  autumn  of 
1876.  I  knew  him  intimately  in  college;  and, 
while  I  have  seen  him  only  at  irregular  intervals 
since  we  graduated  in  1880,  I  have  always  fol 
lowed  his  career  closely  and  with  the  most  in 
tense  interest.  Through  all  these  years  I  have 
had  very  definite  views  of  his  character  which  I 
have  never  seen  any  occasion  to  change.  These 
views  differ  radically  from  those  held  by  many 
people.  I  purpose  to  express  them  here,  and  if 
no' one  shall  find  the  recital  either  instructive  or 
interesting,  it  will  at  least  be  a  satisfaction  to 
me  to  leave  a  record  of  my  estimate  of  a  man 
whom  I  have  known  and  loved  for  nearly  forty 
years.  This  is  in  no  sense  a  history  or  even  a 
finished  sketch  of  his  life.  It  is  a  record  of  my 
personal  impressions,  fortified  by  such  facts  as 


.2    ';>:      THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

would  seem  to  justify  my  conclusions,  and  with 
no  attempt  to  secure  a  complete  perspective, 
through  the  relative  amount  of  detail  with 
which  Roosevelt's  characteristics  and  the  events 
of  the  time  are  discussed. 

In  order  to  make  the  trend  of  my  discourse 
clear,  I  will  say  at  the  outset  that  my  purpose  is 
to  give  the  reasons  upon  which  I  base  my  con 
clusion  that  Roosevelt  has  never  been  a  "politi 
cian";  that  his  opinions,  regarded  by  many  as 
radical  and  by  some  as  even  revolutionary,  were 
carefully  considered  for  many  years  before  they 
found  expression;  and  that  in  the  campaigns  of 
1912  he  was  seeking  to  advance  a  cause  and 
not  any  personal  ambition.  I  shall  discuss 
some  of  the  great  questions  with  which  he 
dealt,  and  shall  not  even  refer  to  others  per 
haps  equally  or  more  important.  Incidentally 
I  shall  give  my  reasons  for  believing  that  Roose 
velt  is,  and  always  has  been,  a  person  of  great 
simplicity  of  character,  of  the  highest  ideals, 
and  with  a  wider  range  of  genuine  human  sym 
pathies  than  any  other  man  who  ever  occupied 
the  Presidential  office.  I  say  wider  range  of 
genuine  human  sympathies,  not  deeper  sympa 
thies,  for  I  have  Lincoln  in  mind.  I  shall  at-. 


FROM   1876  TO    1901  3 

tempt  to  account  for  his  great  popularity  and  to 
state  the  reason  why  he  deliberately  and  unself 
ishly,  as  I  believe,  chose  a  course  which,  for 
the  time  being  at  least,  has  cast  a  shadow  upon 
his  pathway. 

I  will  say  here,  lest  I  forget  to  say  it  elsewhere, 
that  the  qualities  I  knew  in  the  boy  are  the  quali 
ties  most  observed  in  the  man,  and  that  of  all 
the  men  I  have  known  for  as  long  a  time  he  has 
changed  the  least. 

As  a  boy  in  college,  he  was  a  good  student, 
but  not  a  "grind";  he  entered  into  and  enjoyed 
every  phase  of  college  life  —  intellectual,  physi 
cal,  social;  he  was  popular  with  all,  loved  by 
many;  the  natural  sciences,  history,  and  politi 
cal  economy  were  the  studies  that  interested  him 
most;  he  had  honorable  mention  in  natural  his 
tory,  had  a  Commencement  part,  and  was  a 
member  of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa.  He  was  in 
tense  in  everything  he  did;  his  occupation  for 
the  moment  was  to  the  exclusion  of  everything 
else;  if  he  were  reading,  the  house  might  fall 
about  his  head,  he  could  not  be  diverted.  This 
power  of  concentration,  a  great  gift,  is  one  which 
has  contributed  so  largely  to  his  ability  to  ac 
complish  so  much  in  so  many  fields  of  activity. 


4  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

He  was  fond  of  athletics,  but  never  greatly 
excelled;  he  never  claimed  to:  he  did  the  best 
he  could.  Boxing  was  his  favorite  sport,  but  he 
was  greatly  handicapped  because  he  was  near 
sighted.  Many  people  have  said  that  Roosevelt 
wore  glasses  when  he  boxed.  Referring  to  this, 
he  once  said:  — 

No  human  being  could  box  with  spectacles  or 
glasses  on.  It  would  be  absolutely  certain  that  he 
would  have  them  broken  in  the  first  minute  or  two, 
and  in  all  human  probability  he  would  then  be 
blinded  permanently.  The  usual  result  when  I  boxed 
with  any  really  first-class  man  .  .  .  was  that  I  got 
thoroughly  well  pounded,  and  with  no  one  of  those 
men  would  my  glasses  have  lasted  thirty  seconds. 

He  had  a  lively  sense  of  humor.  I  remember 
well  with  what  glee  he  told  us  that  he  had  gone 
to  Boston  to  get  a  basket  of  live  lobsters  for 
laboratory  purposes,  and  on  the  way  back  they 
escaped,  much  to  the  consternation  of  the  wo 
men  in  the  horse-car. 

His  love  for  the  open  was  in  constant  evi 
dence.  During  the  intervals  in  the  semi-an 
nual  examinations  it  frequently  happened  that 
a  boy  would  have  a  little  time  at  his  disposal. 
"Teddy"  would  take  advantage  of  the  oppor 
tunity  to  go  to  the  Maine  woods  to  hunt  and 


THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

At  the  time  of  his  Graduation  in  1880 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  5 

trap.  He  would  come  back  with  tales  of  expo 
sure  and  hardship,  as  it  seemed  to  us,  which  he 
had  enjoyed.  He  was  then,  as  a  boy,  in  a  class 
by  himself,  as  he  has  been  ever  since. 

"Teddy,"  as  he  was  called  in  college,  was 
always  immune  from  the  criticism  which  would 
be  visited  upon  another  under  the  same  condi 
tions. 

He  was  far  from  being  a  ready  speaker.  I 
remember  that  at  the  "Pudding,"  we  often  in 
cited  a  discussion  for  the  purpose  of  rousing 
"Teddy."  In  his  excitement  he  would  some 
times  lose  altogether  the  power  of  articulation, 
much  to  our  delight.  He  had  then  almost  a 
defect  in  his  speech  which  made  his  utterance 
at  times  deliberate  and  even  halting.  It  became 
evident  very  early  that  Roosevelt  was  a  person 
sui  generis,  and  not  to  be  judged  by  the  ordinary 
standards,  and  very  early  in  our  college  life  I 
came  to  believe  in  his  star  of  destiny.  I  once 
received  a  note  from  him,  of  no  great  conse 
quence  which  I  carefully  preserved,  thinking,  as 
I  said  at  the  time,  that  some  day  it  would  pos 
sess  a  peculiar  value. 

Roosevelt  was  married  in  October,  1880;  he 
spent  the  summer  of  1881  in  Europe,  and  while 


6  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

in  Switzerland  made  the  ascent  of  the  Matter- 
horn  and  the  Jungfrau  —  the  initiatory  expe 
rience  of  so  many  explorers. 

His  entrance  into  politics  can  best  be  recorded 
by  the  introduction  here  of  his  appeal  to  his 
constituents  dated  November  I,  1881,  and  his 
endorsement  by  certain  residents  of  the  21  st 
Assembly  District  in  New  York:  — 

NEW  YORK,  November  ist,  1881. 
DEAR  SIR, 

Having  been  nominated  as  a  candidate  for  member 
of  Assembly  for  this  District,  I  would  esteem  it  a 
compliment  if  you  honor  me  with  your  vote  and  per 
sonal  influence  on  Election  day. 

Very  respectfully, 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 

TWENTY-FIRST  ASSEMBLY  DISTRICT 
40th  to  86th  Sts.,  Lexington  to  7th  Aves. 

We  cordially  recommend  the  voters  of  the  Twenty- 
first  Assembly  District  to  cast  their  ballots  for 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

for  Member  of  Assembly, 

and  take  much  pleasure  in  testifying  to  our  appreci 
ation  of  his  high  character  and  standing  in  the 
community.  He  is  conspicuous  for  his  honesty  and 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  7 

integrity,  and  eminently  qualified  to  represent  the 
District  in  the  Assembly. 

NEW  YORK,  November  1st,  1881. 

F.  A.  P.  Barnard,  William  T.  Black,  Willard 
Bullard,  Joseph  H.  Choate,  Wm.  A.  Darling, 
Henry  E.  Davies,  Theodore  W.  Dwight,  Jacob 
Hess,  Morris  K.  Jesup,  Edward  Mitchell,  Wil 
liam  F.  Morgan,  Chas.  S.  Robinson,  Elihu  Root, 
Jackson  S.  Schultz,  Elliott  F.  Shepard,  Gus- 
tavus  Tuckerman,  S.  H.  Wales,  W.  H.  Webb. 

At  about  this  time  I  wrote  him  a  letter  evi 
dently  containing  some  jocular  charge  that  he 
had  become  a  politician,  for  I  received  the  fol 
lowing  reply: — ' 

6  W.  57  St., 

NEW  YORK, 

Nov.  10,  '8 1. 

Too  true,  too  true;  I  have  become  a  "political 
hack."  Finding  it  would  not  interfere  much  with  my 
law,  I  accepted  the  nomination  to  the  Assembly  and 
was  elected  by  1500  majority,  leading  the  ticket  by 
800  votes.  But  don't  think  I  am  going  to  go  into 
politics  after  this  year,  for  I  am  not. 

This  letter  is  evidence  that  Roosevelt  at  that 
time  had  a  serious  purpose  to  become  a  lawyer 
and  had  no  intention  of  remaining  in  politics. 
His  chief  interest  in  the  Legislature  is  thus  de 
scribed  in  his  own  words :  — 


8  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

I  paid  attention  chiefly  while  in  the  Legislature  to 
laws  for  the  reformation  of  Primaries  and  of  the 
Civil  Service  and  endeavored  to  have  a  certain  Judge 
Westbrook  impeached,  on  the  ground  of  corrupt  col 
lusion  with  Jay  Gould  and  the  prostitution  of  his 
high  judicial  office  to  serve  the  purpose  of  wealthy  and 
unscrupulous  stock  gamblers,  but  was  voted  down. 

This  has  a  familiar  sound:  the  reform  of  what 
he  regarded  as  abuses  was  Roosevelt's  occupa 
tion  thirty  years  ago  and  has  been  ever  since. 

Contrary  to  the  purpose  expressed  in  the  let 
ter  I  have  quoted,  Roosevelt  was  again  a  candi 
date  in  1882  and  ran  2000  ahead  of  his  ticket. 
He  was  nominated  as  the  Republican  candidate 
for  Speaker  in  1883,  but  as  his  was  the  minority 
party,  the  nomination  was  a  mere  compliment. 

"Harper's  Weekly"  for  April  21,  1883,  said 
of  him:  — 

With  energy  and  ardor  and  with  a  directness  and 
plainness  of  speech  from  which  older  legislators 
shrink,  Mr.  Roosevelt,  in  the  last  session,  moved  the 
Westbrook  inquiry,  and  in  the  present  session  he  has 
urged  proceedings  to  vacate  the  charter  of  the  Man 
hattan  Elevated  Railway  Company.  He  has  also 
introduced  the  Municipal  Civil  Service  Reform  Bill, 
and  his  voice  and  vote  are  sure  for  whatever  is  honest, 
wise  and  progressive.  Like  many  of  the  younger 
Republicans,  Mr.  Roosevelt  holds  the  soundest  views 
upon  public  questions  with  the  feeling  that  the 


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FACSIMILE   OF    LETTER    FROM    THEODORE 
ROOSEVELT   TO   CHARLES    G.  WASHBURN 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  9 

Republican  party  is  the  organization  which,  from  its 
traditional  principles  and  the  character  of  its  mem 
bership,  is  more  likely  wisely  to  secure  the  public 
welfare. 

Meantime,  in  1882,  his  first  book  was  pub 
lished,  "The  Naval  War  of  1812."  Here  is  a 
striking  instance  of  Roosevelt's  versatility;  the 
subject  interested  him,  and  he  wrote  the  book. 
He  was  twenty-four  years  old  at  the  time.  I 
shall  make  the  following  quotation  from  the 
preface  for  future  reference:  — 

At  present  people  are  beginning  to  realize  that  it 
is  folly  for  the  great  English-speaking  Republic  to 
rely  for  defense  upon  a  navy  composed  partly  of  anti 
quated  hulks,  and  partly  of  new  vessels  rather  more 
worthless  than  the  old. 

He  was  reflected  for  a  third  term,  and  was 
made  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Cities  and 
of  a  legislative  investigating  committee  which 
passed  a  series  of  laws  which  practically  revolu 
tionized  the  municipal  government  of  the  City 
of  New  York.  The  session  of  1884  ended  his 
service  in  the  Assembly.  He  refused  a  renomina- 
tion  and  two  nominations  for  Congress.  His 
purpose  to  abandon  political  life  seems  clear. 

One  of  the  early  cartoons  of  Roosevelt,  in 
February,  1884,  represents  him  in  the  act  of 


io  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

cutting  the  claws  of  the  Tammany  tiger,  de 
stroying  the  confirming  power  of  the  Board  of 
Aldermen  by  an  act  of  the  Legislature;  and 
again,  a  month  later,  the  Tammany  tiger  is 
exhibited  in  a  state  of  total  collapse,  teeth  and 
claws  scattered  about,  while  Roosevelt  and 
Governor  Cleveland,  arm  in  arm,  survey  the 
wreck,  Roosevelt  holding  in  one  hand  a  pair  of 
shears  inscribed,  "Roosevelt  Bill." 

I  will  refer  here  to  an  act  in  the  passage  of 
which  Roosevelt  was  interested,  entitled  "An 
act  to  improve  the  public  health  by  prohibiting 
the  manufacture  and  preparations  of  tobacco  in 
any  form  in  tenement  houses,  in  certain  cases." 
The  law  was  passed  to  remedy  a  very  real  evil 
which  Roosevelt  had  appreciated  through  a 
personal  investigation  of  conditions  in  tenement 
houses,  where  a  family  with  a  boarder  or  two 
might  be  found  living  in  one  or  two  rooms,  while 
the  manufacture  of  cigars  was  being  carried  on 
in  close  proximity  to  the  stove  or  kitchen  sink. 
The  law  was  passed  in  1884,  and  was  declared 
unconstitutional  by  the  Court  of  Appeals  in 
January,  1885.  The  court  held  in  general  terms 
that  this  was  not  a  proper  exercise  of  the  "police 
power,"  and  that  the  law  interfered  with  the 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  ii 

profitable  and  free  use  of  his  property  by  the 
owner  or  his  lessee  and  that  a  constitutional 
guaranty  was  violated.  The  court  said,  among 
other  things:  — 

It  cannot  be  perceived  how  the  cigar-maker  is  to 
be  improved  in  his  health  or  his  morals  by  forcing 
him  from  his  home  and  its  hallowed  associations  and 
beneficent  influences  to  ply  his  trade  elsewhere. 

As  applied  to  the  kind  of  tenement  I  have 
referred  to,  this  reference  to  the  "home  and 
its  hallowed  associations"  seems  grotesque  or 
tragic,  depending  upon  the  point  of  view.  It 
is  not  surprising  that  Roosevelt's  wrath  should 
have  blazed  up  at  such  a  narrow  view  of  the 
police  power.  I  have  referred  to  this  matter  in 
some  detail,  because,  as  I  shall  point  out  later, 
I  find  here  the  beginning  of  Roosevelt's  revolt 
against  the  disposition  of  some  courts  in  this 
class  of  cases  unduly  to  restrict  the  exercise  of 
the  police  power  in  safeguarding  the  health  and 
morals  of  the  people.  The  recall  of  judicial  de 
cisions  advocated  in  the  Columbus  speech  of 
1912  is  an  attempt  to  remedy  what  Roosevelt 
recognized  as  an  abuse  in  1884.  It  was  not,  as 
some  of  his  critics  have  suggested,  the  unrea 
soning  appeal  of  the  demagogue,  but  the  result 


12  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

of  years  of  reflection.  Whether  one  agrees  with 
his  conclusion  or  not,  —  and  I  do  not,  —  one 
must  acquit  Roosevelt  of  any  other  purpose 
than  to  right  what  he  believed  to  be  a  wrong, 
and  what  in  many  cases  is  a  wrong. 

His  wife  and  mother  died  in  February,  1884, 
and  thereafter  for  several  years,  Roosevelt 
spent  most  of  his  summers  on  his  cattle  ranch 
on  the  Little  Missouri  in  western  Dakota  and 
in  making  hunting  trips  from  it  after  bear, 
elk,  and  buffalo.  His  time  was  pretty  evenly  di 
vided,  as  he  said,  between  ranching,  literature, 
and  politics. 

In  the  campaign  of  1884,  Roosevelt  was  for 
Edmunds  for  President  and  against  Elaine  and 
Arthur.  He  headed  the  New  York  delegation 
to  the  National  Convention.  The  Chairman 
of  the  National  Committee  nominated  Powell 
Clayton,  of  Arkansas,  for  temporary  chairman. 
Henry  Cabot  Lodge  nominated  John  R.  Lynch, 
a  colored  man,  of  Mississippi.  In  speaking  to 
this  nomination,  Theodore  Roosevelt  said:  — 

I  trust  that  the  motion  made  by  the  gentleman 
from  Massachusetts  [Mr.  Lodge]  will  be  adopted, 
and  that  we  will  select  as  Chairman  of  this  Conven 
tion  that  representative  Republican,  Mr.  Lynch,  of 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  13 

Mississippi.  Mr.  Chairman,  it  has  been  said  by  the 
distinguished  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  [Mr. 
Stewart]  that  it  is  without  precedent  to  reverse  the 
action  of  the  National  Committee.  Who  has  not 
known  numerous  instances  where  the  action  of  a 
State  Committee  has  been  reversed  by  the  State 
Convention?  Not  one  of  us  but  has  known  such  in 
stances.  Now,  there  are,  as  I  understand  it,  but  two 
delegates  to  this  Convention  who  have  seats  on  the 
National  Committee;  and  I  hold  it  to  be  deroga 
tory  to  our  honor,  to  our  capacity  for  self-govern 
ment,  to  say  that  we  must  accept  the  nomination  of 
a  presiding  officer  by  another  body;  and  that  our 
hands  are  tied,  and  we  dare  not  reverse  its  action. 

Now,  one  word  more.  I  trust  that  the  vote  will  be 
taken  by  individual  members,  and  not  by  States.  Let 
each  man  stand  accountable  to  those  whom  he  repre 
sents  for  his  vote.  Let  no  man  be  able  to  shelter  him 
self  behind  the  shield  of  his  State.  What  we  say  is, 
that  one  of  the  cardinal  doctrines  of  the  American 
political  government  is  the  accountability  of  each 
man  to  his  people;  and  let  each  man  stand  up  here 
and  cast  his  vote,  and  then  go  home  and  abide  by 
what  he  has  done. 

It  is  now,  Mr.  Chairman,  less  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century  since,  in  this  city,  the  great  Republican  party 
for  the  first  time  organized  for  victory,  and  nomi 
nated  Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Illinois,  who  broke  the  fet 
ters  of  the  slave  and  rent  them  asunder  forever.  It  is 
a  fitting  thing  for  us  to  choose  to  preside  over  this 
Convention  one  of  that  race  whose  right  to  sit  within 
these  walls  is  due  to  the  blood  and  the  treasure  so 


14  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

lavishly  spent  by  the  founders  of  the  Republican 
party.  And  it  is  but  a  further  vindication  of  the 
principles  for  which  the  Republican  party  so  long 
struggled.  I  trust  that  the  Hon.  Mr.  Lynch  will 
be  elected  Temporary  Chairman  of  this  Conven 
tion. 

Elaine  was  nominated,  and  a  serious  defec 
tion  of  Republicans  led  to  the  election  of  Cleve 
land.  Roosevelt  voted  for  Elaine.  I  met  him 
in  New  York  about  this  time,  and  he  told  me 
that  while  he  was  opposed  to  Elaine,  he  did  not 
feel  justified  in  bolting  the  ticket  as  he  had  par 
ticipated  in  the  deliberations  of  the  Convention, 
but  that  in  the  course  he  had  taken  he  had 
alienated  many  friends  and  the  only  kind  of 
political  support  he  valued.  I  always  felt  that 
Roosevelt  did  right  in  supporting  the  ticket, 
although  I  did  not  do  so  myself.  In  judging  of 
a  man's  actions,  his  motive  must  be  first  con 
sidered.  Roosevelt's  action  was  governed  in 
this  case  by  what  he  regarded  as  his  duty, 
which  was  opposed  to  his  inclination  as  well  as 
to  what  he  believed  to  be  for  his  interest. 

At  this  point  should  be  noted  the  fact  that 
Roosevelt  showed  no  desire  to  continue  in  poli 
tics.  The  usual  course,  if  he  had  cared  for  a  polit 
ical  career,  would  have  been  to  go  to  Congress 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  15 

as  he  had  opportunities  to  do,  but  he  turned 
in  another  direction,  and  for  the  following  five 
years  devoted  himself  to  literature,  hunting, 
and  travel.  At  this  time  he  contributed  a  num 
ber  of  political  essays  and  sketches  of  sport  and 
adventure  to  the  "Century  Magazine,"  the 
"North  American  Review,"  the  "New  Prince 
ton  Review,"  and  to  "Harper's."  He  pub 
lished  an  enlarged  edition  of  the  "Naval  War 
of  1812"  and  wrote  in  1885,  in  two  volumes, 
the  "Hunting  Trips  of  a  Ranchman,"  in  1886, 
the  "Life  of  Thomas  H.  Benton,"  and  in  1889 
published  the  "Winning  of  the  West." 

Roosevelt's  love  of  nature  and  his  exultation 
in  physical  life  is  well  illustrated  in  the  quota 
tion  from  Browning  with  which  "Ranch  Life 
and  the  Hunting  Trail"  opens:  — 

"Oh,  our  manhood's  prime  vigor!  No  spirit  feels  waste; 
Not  a  muscle  is  stopped  in  its  playing  nor  sinew  unbraced. 
Oh,  the  wild  joys  of  living!;  the   leaping  from   rock  to 

•    rock, 
The  strong  rending  of  boughs  from  the  fir  tree,  the  cool 

silver  shock 
Of  the  plunge  in  a  pool's  living  water,  the  hunt  of  the 

bear,  — 
And  the  sleep  in  the  dried  river  channel  where  bulrushes 

tell 

That  the  water  was  wont  to  go  warbling  so  softly  and  well. 
How  good  is  man's  life,  the  mere  living." 


16  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

One  can  understand  how  such  a  spirit  could 
enjoy  a  trip  down  the  Little  Missouri  during  the 
spring  freshet.  I  happened  to  meet  Roosevelt 
going  West  in  February,  1886.  Evidently  I 
had  sent  him  a  newspaper  clipping,  for  I  find 
the  following  letter  from  him:  — 

ELKHORN  RANCH, 

MEDORA,  DAKOTA, 

Mar.  27,  '86. 

The  slip  of  paper  was  very  amusing;  I  counted  my 
self  lucky  to  meet  you  as  I  did.  I  am  now  about  start 
ing  off  down  the  river,  which  is  swollen  and  full  of 
ice,  to  go  to  Mandan  about  three  hundred  miles  off. 

It  was  on  this  trip,  I  imagine,  that  Roose 
velt,  acting  as  deputy  sheriff,  and  his  associates 
chased  down  the  river  three  men  who  had  stolen 
his  boat.  They  overtook  the  men,  and  finally, 
after  a  journey  of  great  hardship,  delivered  the 
thieves  into  the  hands  of  the  sheriff. 

It  was  Roosevelt's  experience  with  frontier 
life  that  led  to  his  writing  the  "Winning  of  the 
West,"  in  the  preface  of  which  he  said:  — 

In  conclusion,  I  would  say  that  it  has  been  to  me 
emphatically  a  labor  of  love  to  write  of  the  great 
deeds  of  the  border  people.  I  am  not  blind  to  their 
manifold  shortcomings,  nor  yet  am  I  ignorant  of  their 
many  strong  and  good  qualities.  For  a  number  of 
years  I  spent  most  of  my  time  on  the  frontier,  and 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  17 

lived  and  worked  like  any  other  frontiersman.  The 
wild  country  in  which  we  dwelt  and  across  which  we 
wandered  was  in  the  Far  West;  and  there  were,  of 
course,  many  features  in  which  the  life  of  a  cattleman 
on  the  great  plains  and  among  the  Rockies  differed 
from  that  led  by  a  backwoodsman  in  the  Alleghany 
forests  a  century  before.  Yet  the  points  of  resem 
blance  were  far  more  numerous  and  striking.  We 
guarded  our  herds  of  branded  cattle  and  shaggy 
horses,  hunted  bear,  bison,  elk,  and  deer,  establishing 
civil  government,  and  put  down  evildoers,  white  and 
red,  on  the  banks  of  the  Little  Missouri,  and  among 
the  wooded,  precipitous  foothills  of  the  Bighorn,  ex 
actly  as  did  the  pioneers  who  a  hundred  years  previ 
ously  built  their  log  cabins  beside  the  Kentucky  or  in 
the  valleys  of  the  Great  Smokies.  The  men  who  have 
shared  in  the  fast  vanishing  frontier  life  of  the  present 
feel  a  peculiar  sympathy  with  the  already  long  van 
ished  frontier  life  of  the  past. 

What  lover  of  nature  can  fail  to  be  thrilled  by 
the  introduction  to  "The  Wilderness  Hunter"? 

In  hunting,  the  finding  and  killing  of  the  game  is, 
after  all,  but  a  part  of  the  whole.  The  free,  self- 
reliant,  adventurous  life,  with  its  rugged  and  stal 
wart  democracy;  the  wild  surroundings,  the  grand 
beauty  of  the  scenery,  the  chance  to  study  the  ways 
and  habits  of  the  woodland  creatures  —  all  these 
unite  to  give  to  the  career  of  the  wilderness  hunter 
its  peculiar  charm. 

The  chase  is  among  the  best  of  all  national  pas 
times;  it  cultivates  that  vigorous  manliness  for  the 


18  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

lack  of  which  in  a  natjpn,  as  in  an  individual,  the 
possession  of  no  other  qualities  can  possibly  atone. 
No  one  but  he  who  has  partaken  thereof  can  under 
stand  the  keen  delight  of  hunting  in  lonely  lands. 
For  him  is  the  joy  of  the  horse  well  ridden  and  the 
rifle  well  held;  for  him  the  long  days  of  toil  and  hard 
ship,  resolutely  endured  and  crowned  at  the  end  with 
triumph.  In  after  years,  there  shall  come  forever  to 
his  mind  the  memory  of  endless  prairies  shimmering 
in  the  bright  sun;  of  vast  snow-clad  wastes  lying  deso 
late  under  gray  skies;  of  the  melancholy  marshes,  of 
the  rush  of  mighty  rivers;  of  the  breath  of  the  ever 
green  forest  in  summer;  of  the  crooning  of  ice-armored 
pines  at  the  touch  of  the  winds  of  winter;  of  cataracts 
roaring  between  hoary  mountain  masses;  of  all  the 
innumerable  sights  and  sounds  of  the  wilderness;  of 
its  immensity  and  mystery  and  of  the  silences  that 
brood  in  its  still  depths. 

In  the  fall  of  1886,  he  was  the  Republican 
candidate  for  Mayor  of.  New  York  against 
Henry  George,  the  Labor  candidate,  and  Abrarn 
S.  Hewitt,  the  nominee  of  the  United  Democ 
racy,  who  was  elected. 

On  May  10,  1889,  Roosevelt  was  appointed 
a  member  of  the  United  States  Civil  Service 
Commission,  and,  to  quote  his  own  words  some 
time  later:  — 

Have  been  up  to  my  ears  in  one  unending  fight  to 
take  and  keep  the  Civil  Service  out  of  the  hands  of 
the  politicians;  and  I  may  say  without  question  that 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  19 

during  this  year  the  law  has  been  observed  in  the 
classified  service  under  our  charge  more  rigidly  and 
impartially  than  ever  before. 

President  Harrison,  who  was  not  given  to 
exuberance  of  expression,  said  of  him:  — 

If  he  had  no  other  record  than  his  service  as  an  em 
ployee  of  the  Civil  Service  Commission,  he  would  be 
deserving  of  the  nation's  gratitude  and  confidence. 

Roosevelt  continued  as  Civil  Service  Com 
missioner  until  April,  1895,  a  period  of  nearly 
six  years.  It  was  not  a  place  that  any  one  with 
any  political  ambition  would  have  sought,  and 
would,  I  think,  be  commonly  regarded  as  a 
veritable  graveyard  for  any  political  aspira 
tions.  I  remember  seeing  in  the  New  York 
"Tribune,"  about  this  time,  an  interview  with 
Roosevelt  in  which  he  said  that  he  might  like 
to  go  into  politics,  but  that  he  had  no  constit 
uency,  by  which  I  understood  him  to  mean 
that  his  prolonged  absence  from  New  York  had 
put  him  completely  out  of  touch  with  political 
affairs  there.  It  is  reasonably  clear  that  at  this 
time  and  during  his  term  as  Civil  Service  Com 
missioner,  Roosevelt  had  no  expectation  of  en 
tering  politics.  Meantime,  in  November,  1890, 
he  had  published  a  history  of  the  City  of  New 


20  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

York;  in  1893,  in  two  volumes,  "The  Wilder 
ness  Hunter";  and  in  April,  1895,  in  conjunc 
tion  with  Senator  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  "Hero 
Tales  from  American  History." 

In  April,  1895,  Roosevelt  was  appointed  Po 
lice  Commissioner  in  the  City  of  New  York, 
and  continued  in  that  office  until  April,  1897. 
Again  he  filled  a  position  which  led  nowhere  in 
politics,  however  great  the  opportunities  for  ser 
vice  that  it  offered,  evidence  that  opportunity  for 
service  without  the  slightest  regard  for  politi 
cal  advancement  was  the  controlling  motive  of 
Roosevelt's  life. 

His  sense  of  humor,  often  light,  sometimes 
grim,  but  always  palpably  present  or  lurking 
in  the  near  background  is  well  illustrated  in  an 
article  on  the  Vice-Presidency,  written  in  Sep 
tember,  1896;  speaking  of  the  Southern  Popu 
lists,  he  said:  — 

They  distrust  anything  they  cannot  understand; 
and  as  they  understand  but  little,  this  opens  a  very 
wide  field  for  distrust.  They  are  apt  to  be  emotion 
ally  religious.  If  not,  they  are  then  at  least  atheists 
of  an  archaic  type.  Refinement  and  comfort  they  are 
apt  to  consider  quite  as  objectionable  as  immorality. 
That  a  man  should  change  his  clothes  in  the  evening, 
that  he  should  dine  at  any  other  hour  than  noon, 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  21 

impress  these  good  people  as  being  symptoms  of  de 
pravity  instead  of  merely  trivial.  A  taste  for  learning 
and  cultivated  friends,  and  a  tendency  to  bathe  fre 
quently,  cause  them  the  deepest  suspicion.  .  .  .  Sen 
ator  Tillman,  the  great  Populist,  or  Democratic, 
orator  from  South  Carolina,  possesses  an  untram- 
meled  tongue  any  middle-of-the-road  man  would  envy; 
and,  moreover,  Mr.  Tillman's  brother  has  been  fre 
quently  elected  to  Congress  upon  the  issue  that  he 
never  wore  either  an  overcoat  or  an  undershirt,  an 
issue  which  any  Populist  statesman  finds  readily 
comprehensible,  and  which  he  would  recognize  at 
first  glance  as  being  strong  before  the  people. 

In  April,  1897,  he  was  appointed  Assistant 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  by  President  McKinley, 
John  D.  Long,  of  Massachusetts,  being  Secre 
tary.  This  was  a  most  congenial  place  for 
Roosevelt,  and  he  devoted  himself  with  his  cus 
tomary  energy  to  the  duties  of  his  office.  He 
not  only  got  the  navy  ready  for  war,  but,  to 
put  it  mildly,  did  not  shrink  from  the  then  im 
pending  conflict  with  Spain.  Against  the  urgent 
advice  of  most  of  his  friends,  he  resigned  his 
position  May  6,  1898,  and  entered  the  mili 
tary  service  as  lieutenant-colonel,1  First  United 

1  He  declined  the  Colonelcy.  "  Fortunately,"  said  Roosevelt, 
"  I  was  wise  enough  to  tell  the  Secretary  that  while  I  believed  I 
could  learn  to  command  the  regiment  in  a  month,  yet  that  it 
was  just  this  very  month  which  I  could  not  afford  to  spare,  and 


22  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

States  Cavalry  Volunteers,  "The  Rough  Rid 
ers,"  organized  by  Colonel  Leonard  Wood  and 
himself.  Secretary  Long  said  of  him :  — 

He  was  heart  and  soul  in  his  work.  His  typewriters 
had  no  rest.  He,  like  most  of  us,  lacks  the  rare  knack 
of  brevity.  He  was  especially  stimulating  to  the 
younger  officers  who  gathered  about  him  and  made 
his  office  as  busy  as  a  hive.  He  was  especially  helpful 
in  the  purchasing  of  ships  and  in  every  line  where  he 
could  push  on  the  work  of  preparation  for  war.  Al 
most  as  soon,  however,  as  it  was  declared,  he  resigned 
the  assistant-secretaryship  of  the  navy  to  accept  the 
lieutenant-colonelcy  of  the  Rough  Rider  regiment  in 
the  army.  Together  with  many  of  his  friends,  I  urged 
him  strenuously  to  remain  in  the  navy,  arguing  that 
he  would  there  make  a  signal  reputation,  and  that  to 
go  into  the  army  would  be  only  to  fight  mosquitoes 
on  the  Florida  sands  or  fret  in  camp  at  Chickamauga. 
How  right  he  was  in  his  prognosis  and  how  wrong 
we  were  in  ours,  the  result  has  shown.  He  took  the 
straight  course  to  fame,  to  the  governorship  of  New 
York  and  to  the  presidency  of  the  United  States.  He 
has  the  dash  of  Henry  of  Navarre  without  any  of  his 
vices.  His  room  in  the  Navy  Department  after  his 
decision  to  enter  the  army,  which  preceded  for  some 
time  his  resignation  as  i  jsistant  Secretary,  was  an 
interesting  scene.  It  bubbled  over  with  enthusiasm, 
and  was  filled  with  bright  young  fellows  from  all  over 
the  country,  college  graduates  and  old  associates 

that,  therefore,  I  would  be  quite  content  to  go  as  Lieutenant- 
Colonel,  if  he  would  make  Wood  Colonel."  , 


Copyright  by  Rockwood,  1897 
THEODORE   ROOSEVELT,    1897 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  23 

from  the  Western  ranches,  all  eager  to  serve  with 
Roosevelt.  The  Rough  Rider  uniform  was  in  evi 
dence;  it  climbed  the  steps  of  the  Navy  Department; 
it  filled  the  corridors;  guns,  uniforms,  all  sorts  of 
military  traps,  and  piles  of  papers  littered  the  Assist 
ant  Secretary's  room,  but  it  was  all  the  very  inspira 
tion  of  young  manhood. 

,  This  is  the  reason  he  gave  for  his  action :  — 

While  my  party  was  in  opposition,  I  had  preached 
with  all  the  fervor  and  zeal  I  possessed  our  duty  to  in 
tervene  in  Cuba  and  to  take  this  opportunity  of  driv 
ing  the  Spaniard  from  the  Western  world.  Now  that 
my  party  had  come  to  power,  I  felt  it  incumbent  on 
me,  by  word  and  deed,  to  do  all  I  could  to  secure  the 
carrying-out  of  the  policy  in  which  I  so  heartily  be 
lieved;  and  from  the  beginning,  I  had  determined 
that,  if  a  war  came,  somehow  or  other,  I  was  going 
to  the  front. 

Meantime  he  had  published  in  October,  1897, 
his  "American  Ideals"  in  two  volumes,  and  in 
April,  1898,  the  "Life  of  Gouverneur  Morris." 

Of  the  Cuban  campaign  it  is  enough  to  say 
here  that  Roosevelt  was  commended  for  gal 
lantry  and  promoted  colonel,  and  was  in  com 
mand  at  San  Juan  Hill.  I  once  asked  him  what 
act  of  his  life  or  what  experience  had  given  him 
the  most  pleasure  and  satisfaction.  He  re 
flected  for  a  moment,  and  then  replied,  "The 
charge  up  San  Juan  Hill." 


24  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

I  do  not  mean  to  suggest  that  he  attached 
undue  importance  to  that  battle.  Speaking  at 
Chattanooga  in  1902  he  said:  — 

Compared  to  the  giant  death  wrestle  that  reeled 
over  the  mountains  roundabout  this  city,  the  fight  at 
Santiago  was  the  merest  skirmish;  but  the  spirit  in 
which  we  handled  ourselves  there,  I  hope,  was  the 
spirit  in  which  we  have  to  face  our  duties  as  citizens 
if  we  are  to  make  this  Republic  what  it  must  be  made. 

On  July  27,  1898,  Hay  wrote  to  Roosevelt:1 

I  am  afraid  I  am  the  last  of  your  friends  to  con 
gratulate  you  on  the  brilliant  campaign  which  now 
seems  drawing  to  a  close,  and  in  which  you  have 
gained  so  much  experience  and  glory.  When  the  war 
began  I  was  like  the  rest;  I  deplored  your  place  in  the 
navy,  where  you  were  so  useful  and  so  acceptable. 
But  I  knew  it  was  idle  to  preach  to  a  young  man. 
You  obeyed  your  own  daemon,  and  I  imagine  we  older 
fellows  will  all  have  to  confess  that  you  were  in  the 
right.  As  Sir  Walter  wrote:  — 

"  One  crowded  hour  of  glorious  life 
Is  worth  an  age  without  a  name." 

You  have  written  your  name  on  several  pages  of 
your  country's  history,  and  they  are  all  honorable  to 
you  and  comfortable  to  your  friends. 

A  characteristic  remark  was  reported  of 
Roosevelt  upon  his  return  from  Cuba.  As  the 
Transport  cast  anchor  off  Montauk  some  one 

1  The  quotations  from  John  Hay's  Letters  are  as  they  appear 
in  Mr.  William  Roscoe  Thayer's  Life  and  Letters  of  John  Hay. 
Boston,  1915. 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  25 

called  out  and  asked  him  how  he  was  feeling  — 
"Disgracefully  well,"  was  his  reply.  He  seemed 
to  think  that  when  so  many  were  returning  sick 
and  weak,  it  was  not  creditable  to  him  to  be  in 
such  good  physical  condition. 

He  was  mustered  out  at  Camp  Wickoff,  Long 
Island,  September  15,  1898. 

Certainly,  up  to  this  point,  there  has  been  dis 
closed  no  settled  purpose  in  Roosevelt's  life, 
excepting  to  be  hard  at  work  in  some  field  of 
activity  —  physical  or  mental.  And  now  he  was 
to  enter  politics  again,  not  by  his  own  volition, 
but  because  of  the  desire  of  others.  A  Repub 
lican  candidate  for  Governor  of  New  York  was 
wanted  who  could  carry  the  State.  Roosevelt 
with  his  military  record  was  the  only  man  who 
could  do  it.  The  politicians  took  him,  not  be 
cause  they  wanted  him,  but  because  they  needed 
him,  and  he  was  elected  for  the  term  beginning 
January  I,  1899,  and  ending  December  31, 1900. 

Speaking  of  the  negotiations  which  led  up  to 
his  nomination,  Roosevelt  says  in  his  "Autobi 
ography": — 

It  was  Mr.  Quigg  who  called  on  me  at  Montauk 
Point  to  sound  me  about  the  governorship;  Mr.  Platt 
being  by  no  means  enthusiastic  over  Mr.  Quigg's 


26  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

mission,  largely  because  he  disapproved  of  the  Span 
ish  War  and  of  my  part  in  bringing  it  about.  Mr. 
Quigg  saw  me  in  my  tent,  in  which  he  spent  a  couple 
of  hours  with  me,  my  brother-in-law,  Douglas  Rob 
inson,  being  also  present.  Quigg  spoke  very  frankly 
to  me,  stating  that  he  earnestly  desired  to  see  me 
nominated  and  believed  that  the  great  body  of  Re 
publican  voters  in  the  State  so  desired,  but  that  the 
organization  and  the  State  Convention  would  finally 
do  what  Senator  Platt  desired.  He  said  that  county 
leaders  were  already  coming  to  Senator  Platt,  hinting 
at  a  close  election,  expressing  doubt  of  Governor 
Black's  availability  for  reelection,  and  asking  why  it 
would  not  be  a  good  thing  to  nominate  me;  that  now 
that  I  had  returned  to  the  United  States  this  would 
go  on  more  and  more  all  the  time,  and  that  he  [Quigg] 
did  not  wish  that  these  men  should  be  discouraged 
and  be  sent  back  to  their  localities  to  suppress  a  rising 
sentiment  in  my  favor.  For  this  reason  he  said  that 
he  wanted  from  me  a  plain  statement  as  to  whether 
or  not  I  wanted  the  nomination,  and  as  to  what 
would  be  my  attitude  toward  the  organization  in  the 
event  of  my  nomination  and  election,  —  whether  or 
not  I  would  "make  war"  on  Mr.  Platt  and  his  friends, 
or  whether  I  would  confer  with  them  and  with  the 
organization  leaders  generally,  and  give  fair  consider 
ation  to  their  point  of  view  as  to  party  policy  and 
public  interest.  He  said  he  had  not  come  to  make  me 
any  offer  of  the  nomination,  and  had  no  authority 
to  do  so,  nor  to  get  any  pledges  or  promises.  He 
simply  wanted  a  frank  definition  of  my  attitude 
toward  existing  party  conditions. 

To  this  I  replied  that  I  should  like  to  be  nominated, 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  27 

and  if  nominated  would  promise  to  throw  myself  into 
the  campaign  with  all  possible  energy.  I  said  that  I 
should  not  make  war  on  Mr.  Platt  or  anybody  else 
if  war  could  be  avoided;  that  what  I  wanted  was  to 
be  Governor  and  not  a  faction  leader;  that  I  certainly 
would  confer  with  the  organization  men,  as  with 
everybody  else  who  seemed  to  me  to  have  knowledge 
of  and  interest  in  public  affairs,  and  that  as  to  Mr. 
Platt  and  the  organization  leaders,  I  would  do  so  in 
the  sincere  hope  that  there  might  always  result  har 
mony  of  opinion  and  purpose;  but  that  while  I  would 
try  to  get  on  well  with  the  organization,  the  organiza 
tion  must  with  equal  sincerity  strive  to  do  what  I 
regarded  as  essential  for  the  public  good;  and  that  in 
every  case,  after  full  consideration  of  what  every 
body  had  to  say  who  might  possess  real  knowledge  of 
the  matter,  I  should  have  to  act  finally  as  my  own 
judgment  and  conscience  dictated  and  administer 
the  State  Government  as  I  thought  it  ought  to  be 
administered.  Quigg  said  that  this  was  precisely 
what  he  supposed  I  would  say,  that  it  was  all  any 
body  could  expect,  and  that  he  would  state  it  to 
Senator  Platt  precisely  as  I  had  put  it  to  him,  which 
he  accordingly  did;  and,  throughout  my  term  as 
Governor,  Quigg  lived  loyally  up  to  our  understand 
ing. 

Letter  from  Roosevelt  to  Quigg 

CAMP  WICKOFF, 

MONTAUK  POINT,  L.I., 

Sept.  12,  1898. 

I  hope  that  Saturday  will  do  with  the  mustering-out. 
It  is  a  simple  impossibility  for  me  to  get  in  before. 
As  I  telegraphed,  your  representation  of  what  I 


28  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

said  was  substantially  right;  that  is,  it  gave  just  the 
spirit.  But  I  don't  like  the  wording  of  some  of  your 
sentences.  At  first,  on  account  of  this,  I  hesitated 
how  to  reply;  but  finally  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  last  sentence  of  your  "report"  covered  the  whole 
matter  sufficiently.  I  shan't  try  to  go  over  your  dif 
ferent  sentences  in  detail;  but  for  instance,  instead  of 
saying  that  I  would  not  "wish"  to  be  a  figurehead 
you  should  have  used  the  word  "consent,"  and  there 
are  various  other  similar  verbal  changes  to  which  I 
think  you  would  agree.  Then  I  wish  you  could  have 
brought  out  the  fact  that  these  statements  were  not 
in  the  nature  of  bids  for  the  nomination,  or  of  pledges 
by  me,  and  that  you  made  no  effort  to  exact  any 
pledges,  but  that  they  were  statements  which  I  freely 
made  when  you  asked  me  what  my  position  would 
be  if  nominated  and  elected  (you  having  already 
stated  that  you  wished  me  nominated  and  elected). 
However,  I  need  not  go  into  the  matter  more  in  de 
tail,  and  I  am  not  sure  that  it  is  necessary  for  me  to 
write  this  at  all,  for  I  know  that  you  did  not  in  any 
way  wish  to  represent  me  as  willing  to  consent  to  act 
otherwise  than  in  accordance  with  my  conscience; 
indeed,  you  said  you  knew  that  I  would  be  incapable 
of  acting  save  with  good  faith  to  the  people  at  large, 
to  the  Republicans  of  the  United  States,  and  to  the 
New  York  Republican  organizations;  and  this  seems 
to  about  cover  it. 

P.S.  In  short,  I  want  to  make  clear  that  there  was 
no  question  of  pledges  or  promises,  least  of  all  a  ques 
tion  of  bargaining  for  the  nomination;  but  that  I 
promptly  told  you  the  position  I  would  take  if  I  was 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  29 

elected  Governor  and  suggested  what  I  thought  it 
would  be  best  for  both  Senator  Platt  and  myself  to 
do  so  as  to  prevent  the  chance  of  any  smash-up, 
which  would  be  disastrous  to  the  welfare  of  the  party 
and  equally  disastrous  from  the  standpoint  of  good 
government.  I  was  not  making  any  agreement  as  to 
what  I  would  do  on  consideration  that  I  received  the 
nomination;  I  was  stating  the  course  which  I  thought 
it  would  be  best  to  follow,  for  the  sake  of  the  party, 
and  for  the  sake  of  the  State  —  both  considerations 
outweighing  infinitely  the  question  of  my  own  nomi 
nation. 

During  his  term  as  Governor,  he  published 
"The  Rough  Riders,"  "The  Strenuous  Life," 
and  the  "Life  of  Oliver  Cromwell."  Roosevelt 
had  the  confidence  of  the  people  in  larger  meas 
ure  than  any  other  Governor  of  New  York  for 
years.  He  promised  to  pursue  Republican  with 
even  greater  avidity  than  Democratic  rascals, 
and  kept  his  promise  by  making  a  Democratic 
lawyer  the  prosecutor  of  those  involved  in  the 
Canal  frauds.  Roosevelt  carried  out  the  prin 
ciple  which  he  expressed  in  his  inaugural  ad 
dress,  that 

in  the  long  run,  he  serves  his  party  best  who  most 
helps  to  make  it  instantly  responsive  to  every  need 
of  the  people,  and  to  the  highest  demands  of  that 
spirit  which  tends  to  drive  us  onward  and  upward. 


30  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

He  demanded  the  repeal  of  the  law  enacted  in 
the  administration  of  his  predecessor,  Governor 
Black,  for  the  purpose  of  taking  the  "starch" 
out  of  the  Civil  Service  law  and  showed  little 
regard  for  the  spoilsmen.  A  paper  constantly 
critical  of  him  said:  "Roosevelt  is  probably  the 
only  Republican  in  the  State  capable  of  an  act 
so  contrary  to  party  amenities  as  this." 

He  was  strong  for  the  enforcement  of  the 
state  law  regulating  the  employment  of  women 
and  children  in  factories  and  to  prevent  exces 
sive  hours  of  labor  on  surface  railroads.  The 
Civil  Service  and  Labor  portions  of  his  first  mes 
sage  were  the  most  prominent.  He  favored  the 
equipment  of  the  National  Guards  with  mod 
ern  arms,  the  substitution  of  biennial  for  annual 
sessions  of  the  Legislature,  and  the  extension 
of  the  area  within  which  suffrage  could  be  exer 
cised  by  women,  particularly  in  reference  to  the 
schools.1  He  searched  the  State  for  the  best 
men  he  could  find,  urged  legislation  in  the  best 
interests  of  the  people  and  put  every  stumbling- 
block  possible  in  the  way  of  bad  legislation.  He 
defied  both  machines. 

1  Some  years  later  (1908),  Roosevelt  said,  "Personally  I  believe 
in  Woman's  Suffrage,  but  I  am  not  an  enthusiastic  advocate  of  it 
because  I  do  not  regard  it  as  a  very  important  matter." 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  31 

His  message  in  January,  1900,  dealt  largely 
with  the  subject  of  taxation.  He  suggested  that 
trusts  should  be  subject  to  the  law  of  publicity, 
and  that 

where  a  trust  becomes  a  monopoly,  the  State  has 
an  immediate  right  to  interfere.  Care  should  be 
taken  not  to  stifle  enterprise  or  disclose  any  facts  of  a 
business  that  are  essentially  private,  but  the  State, 
for  the  protection  of  the  public,  should  exercise  the 
right  to  inspect,  to  examine  thoroughly  all  the  work 
ings  of  great  corporations,  just  as  is  now  done  with 
banks;  and  wherever  the  interests  of  the  public 
demand  it,  it  should  publish  the  results  of  its  exami 
nation.  Then,  if  there  are  inordinate  profits,  com 
petition  or  public  sentiment  will  give  the  public  the 
benefit  in  lowered  prices;  and  if  not,  the  power  of  tax 
ation  remains. 

The  principle  of  government  regulation  and 
not  the  disintegration  of  large  corporations  is 
one  that  he  has  always  adhered  to. 

Much  was  made  by  his  critics  of  the  fact  that 
Roosevelt  occasionally  "had  breakfast  with 
Platt,"  as  evidence  that  he  was  under  the  domi 
nation  of  the  latter,  then  the  "boss"  of  the  Re 
publican  party  in  New  York,  and  also  United 
States  Senator.  The  fact  is  that  while  Roose 
velt  was  a  reformer,  he  was  not  one  of  those 
unpractical  persons  who  railed  at  the  shortcom- 


32  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

ings  of  others  and  refused  to  take  a  hand  him 
self  in  the  remedy  of  abuses.  The  role  of  critic 
is  a  pretty  contemptible  one  unless  accompan 
ied  by  the  desire  and  ability  for  effective  per 
formance.  Roosevelt  would  always  work  with 
such  tools  as  he  had  at  his  command,  but  never 
refused  to  work  because  the  tools  were  not  per 
fect  or  to  his  liking.  He  has  often  been  bitterly 
condemned  by  well-meaning  people  who  stood 
on  the  side  lines  with  folded  hands,  because  he 
was  working  with  "corrupt  politicians."  Well, 
he  did  work  with  them  when  they  served  his  pur 
pose  for  the  very  simple  reason  that  he  had  to 
work  with  them  or  not  work  at  all.  He  would 
have  been  delighted  if  the  people  had  given  him 
tools  more  to  his  liking,  but  as  they  failed  to  do 
this,  and  still  demanded  that  the  work  should  be 
done,  Roosevelt  went  ahead  and  did  it. 

In  his  article  on  "Latitude  and  Longitude 
among  Reformers"  he  said:  — 

The  cloistered  virtue  which  timidly  shrinks  from 
all  contact  with  the  rough  world  of  actual  life,  and  the 
uneasy,  self-conscious  vanity  which  misnames  itself 
virtue,  and  which  declines  to  cooperate  with  what 
ever  does  not  adopt  its  own  fantastic  standard,  are 
rather  worse  than  valueless,  because  they  tend  to 
rob  the  forces  of  good  of  elements  on  which  they 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  33 

ought  to  be  able  to  count  in  the  ceaseless  contest  with 
the  forces  of  evil. 

This  determination  to  do  the  best  he  could 
under  existing  conditions,  whatever  they  might 
be,  was  always  characteristic  of  him. 

Meantime,  Governor  Roosevelt  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  country  by  his  direct  and  fear 
less  manner  of  dealing  with  public  affairs.  In 
1899,  Mr.  James  Bryce  said  of  him,  "Theodore 
Roosevelt  is  the  hope  of  American  politics." 

As  his  term  drew  to  a  close,  his  desire  was  for 
reelection  to  carry  to  full  completion  some  of  his 
plans,  but  in  this  he  was  thwarted,  and,  much 
against  his  will,  was  elected  Vice-President  of 
the  United  States  for  the  term  beginning  March 
4,  1901.  "Shelved,"  as  many  of  his  political 
enemies  said,  with  keen  satisfaction  that  the 
New  York  "boss"  had  kicked  him  upstairs  in 
fulfillment  of  his  vow  that  Roosevelt  should 
not  be  Governor  again.  Roosevelt's  relations 
with  Platt  at  this  time,  both  as  regards  the 
Vice-Presidency  and  as  to  his  successor  in  the 
Governorship,  are  disclosed  in  the  following  let 
ters  dated  February  I,  August  13,  and  August 
20,  1900,  respectively:  — 


34  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt  to  Plait 

February  1st,  1900. 

First,  and  least  important.  If  you  happened  to 
have  seen  the  "Evening  Post"  recently,  you  ought 
to  be  amused,  for  it  is  moralizing  with  lofty  indigna 
tion  over  the  cringing  servility  I  have  displayed  in 
the  matter  of  the  insurance  superintendent.  I  fear  it 
will  soon  take  the  view  that  it  cannot  possibly  sup 
port  you  as  long  as  you  associate  with  me! 

Now  as  to  serious  matters.  I  have,  of  course,  done 
a  great  deal  of  thinking  about  the  Vice-Presidency 
since  the  talk  I  had  with  you  followed  by  the  letter 
from  Lodge  and  the  visit  from  Payne,  of  Wisconsin. 
I  have  been  reserving  the  matter  to  talk  over  with 
you,  but  in  view  of  the  publication  in  the  "Sun"  this 
morning,  I  would  like  to  begin  the  conversation,  as  it 
were,  by  just  a  line  or  two  now.  I  need  not  speak  of 
the  confidence  I  have  in  the  judgment  of  you  and 
Lodge,  yet  I  can't  help  feeling  more  and  more  that 
the  Vice-Presidency  is  not  an  office  in  which  I  could 
do  anything  and  not  an  office  in  which  a  man  who  is 
still  vigorous  and  not  past  middle  life  has  much 
chance  of  doing  anything.  As  you  know,  I  am  of  an 
active  nature.  In  spite  of  all  the  work  and  all  the 
worry,  —  and  very  largely  because  of  your  own  con 
stant  courtesy  and  consideration,  my  dear  Senator, 
—  I  have  thoroughly  enjoyed  being  Governor.  I 
have  kept  every  promise,  express  or  implied,  I  made 
on  the  stump,  and  I  feel  that  the  Republican  party  is 
stronger  before  the  State  because  of  my  incumbency. 
Certainly  everything  is  being  managed  now  on  a 
perfectly  straight  basis  and  every  office  is  as  clean  as 
a  whistle. 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  35 

Now,  I  should  like  to  be  Governor  for  another 
term,  especially  if  we  are  able  to  take  hold  of  the 
canals  in  serious  shape.  But  as  Vice-President,  I 
don't  see  there  is  anything  I  can  do.  I  would  be 
simply  a  presiding  officer,  and  that  I  should  find  a 
bore.  As  you  know,  I  am  a  man  of  moderate  means 
[although  lama  little  better  off  than  the  "  Sun's  " 
article  would  indicate],  and  I  should  have  to  live 
very  simply  in  Washington  and  could  not  entertain 
in  any  way  as  Mr.  Hobart  and  Mr.  Morton  enter 
tained.  My  children  are  all  growing  up  and  I  find 
the  burden  of  their  education  constantly  heavier,  so 
that  I  am  by  no  means  sure  that  I  ought  to  go  into 
public  life  at  all,  provided  some  remunerative  work 
offered  itself.  The  only  reason  I  would  like  to  go  on 
is  that  as  I  have  not  been  a  money-maker  I  feel  rather 
in  honor  bound  to  leave  my  children  the  equivalent 
in  a  way  of  a  substantial  sum  of  actual  achievement 
in  politics  or  letters.  Now,  as  Governor,  I  can  achieve 
something,  but  as  Vice-President  I  should  achieve 
nothing.  The  more  I  look  at  it,  the  less  I  feel  as  if 
the  Vice-Presidency  offered  anything  to  me  that 
would  warrant  my  taking  it. 

Of  course,  I  shall  not  say  anything  until  I  hear 
from  you,  and  possibly  not  until  I  see  you,  but  I  did 
want  you  to  know  just  how  I  felt. 

Roosevelt  to  Plait 

OYSTER  BAY,  August  13^/1900. 

I  noticed  in  Saturday's  paper  that  you  had  spoken 
of  my  suggesting  Judge  Andrews.  I  did  not  intend 
to  make  the  suggestion  public,  and  I  wrote  you  with 


36  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

entire  freedom,  hoping  that  perhaps  I  could  suggest 
some  man  who  would  commend  himself  to  your  judg 
ment  as  being  acceptable  generally  to  the  Republi 
can  party.  I  am  an  organization  Republican  of  a 
very  strong  type,  as  I  understand  the  word  "organi 
zation,"  but  in  trying  to  suggest  a  candidate  for 
Governor,  I  am  not  seeking  either  to  put  up  an 
organization  or  a  non-organization  man,  but  simply 
a  first-class  Republican,  who  will  commend  himself 
to  all  Republicans,  and,  for  the  matter  of  that,  to  all 
citizens  who  wish  good  government.  Judge  Andrews 
needs  no  endorsement  from  any  man  living  as  to  his 
Republicanism.  From  the  time  he  was  Mayor  of 
Syracuse  through  his  long  and  distinguished  service 
on  the  bench  he  has  been  recognized  as  a  Republican 
and  a  citizen  of  the  highest  type.  I  write  this  because 
your  interview  seems  to  convey  the  impression,  which 
I  am  sure  you  did  not  mean  to  convey,  that  in  some 
way  my  suggestions  are  antagonistic  to  the  organi 
zation.  I  do  not  understand  quite  what  you  mean  by 
the  suggestion  of  my  friends,  for  I  do  not  know  who 
the  men  are  to  whom  you  thus  refer,  nor  why  they 
are  singled  out  for  reference  as  making  any  sugges 
tions  about  the  governorship. 

In  your  last  interview,  I  understood  that  you 
wished  me  to  be  back  in  the  State  at  the  time  of  the 
convention.  As  I  wish  to  be  able  to  give  the  nominee 
hearty  and  effective  support,  this  necessarily  means 
that  I  do  have  a  great  interest  in  whom  is  nominated. 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  37 

Roosevelt  to  Platt 

OYSTER  BAY,  August  2Oth,  1900. 

I  have  your  letter  of  the  i6th.  I  wish  to  see  a 
straight  Republican  nomination  for  the  governor 
ship.  The  men  whom  I  have  mentioned,  such  as  ex- 
Judge  Andrews  and  Secretary  Root,  are  as  good 
Republicans  as  can  be  found  in  the  State,  and  I  con 
fess  I  have  n't  the  slightest  idea  what  you  mean 
when  you  say,  "if  we  are  to  lower  the  standard  and 
nominate  such  men  as  you  suggest,  we  might  as  well 
die  first  as  last."  To  nominate  such  a  man  as  either 
of  these  is  to  raise  the  standard;  to  speak  of  it  as 
lowering  the  standard  is  an  utter  misuse  of  words. 

You  say  that  we  must  nominate  some  Republican 
who  "will  carry  out  the  wishes  of  the  organization," 
and  add  that  "I  have  not  yet  made  up  my  mind  who 
that  man  is."  Of  one  thing  I  am  certain,  that,  to 
have  it  publicly  known  that  the  candidate,  whoever 
he  may  be,  "will  carry  out  the  wishes  of  the  organi 
zation,"  would  insure  his  defeat;  for  such  a  statement 
implies  that  he  would  merely  register  the  decrees  of 
a  small  body  of  men  inside  the  Republican  party, 
instead  of  trying  to  work  for  the  success  of  the  party 
as  a  whole  and  of  good  citizenship  generally.  It  is 
not  the  business  of  a  Governor  to  "carry  out  the 
wishes  of  the  organization"  unless  these  wishes  coin 
cide  with  the  good  of  the  party  and  of  the  State.  If 
they  do,  then  he  ought  to  have  them  put  into  effect; 
if  they  do  not,  then  as  a  matter  of  course  he  ought  to 
disregard  them.  To  pursue  any  other  course  would 
be  to  show  servility;  and  a  servile  man  is  always  an 
undesirable  —  not  to  say  a  contemptible  —  public 


38  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

servant.  A  Governor  should,  of  course,  try  in  good 
faith  to  work  with  the  organization;  but  under  no 
circumstances  should  he  be  servile  to  it,  or  "carry 
out  its  wishes"  unless  his  own  best  judgment  is  that 
they  ought  to  be  carried  out. 

I  am  a  good  organization  man  myself,  as  I  under 
stand  the  word  "organization,"  but  it  is  in  the  high 
est  degree  foolish  to  make  a  fetish  of  the  word 
"organization"  and  to  treat  any  man  or  any  small 
group  of  men  as  embodying  the  organization.  The 
organization  should  strive  to  give  effective,  intelli 
gent  and  honest  leadership  to  and  representation  of 
the  Republican  party,  just  as  the  Republican  party 
strives  to  give  wise  and  upright  government  to  the 
State.  When  what  I  have  said  ceases  to  be  true  of 
either  organization  or  party,  it  means  that  the  organ 
ization  or  party  is  not  performing  its  duty,  and  is 
losing  the  reason  for  its  existence. 

The  fact  is  that  the  delegates  to  the  National 
Convention  at  Philadelphia,  without  much  re 
gard  to  the  wishes  of  any  one,  wanted  Roosevelt. 
As  one  of  the  Southern  delegates  said,  "We 
want  a  candidate  we  can  yell  for."  And  so  the 
ticket  was  made  up,  as  some  one  has  put  it,  — 
McKinley,  "the  Western  man  with  Eastern 
sympathies,"  and  Roosevelt,"  the  Eastern  man 
with  Western  sympathies."  He  took  a  very 
active  part  in  the  campaign.  In  October,  1900, 
he  wrote  me:  "You  have  no  conception  of  the 


FROM   1876  TO   1901  39 

strain  I  am  under.  The  National  Committee 
have  worked  me  nearly  to  death.  I  have  spoken 
300  times  already  and  my  voice  is  on  the  verge 
of  a  complete  breakdown." 

I  am  not  a  superstitious  person,  but  I  said  at 
that  time  to  a  friend  who  has  since  reminded 
me  of  it:  "I  would  not  like  to  be  in  McKinley's 
shoes.  He  has  a  man  of  destiny  behind  him." 

Chief  Justice  White  told  me  within  two  years 
that  when  Roosevelt  came  to  Washington  as 
Vice-President,  he  called  upon  him,  and  Roose 
velt  said  that  he  expected  to  have  some  time  on 
his  hands,  as  the  duties  of  his  office  would  not 
be  onerous.  He  asked  Mr.  Justice  White,  as 
he  was  then,  if  it  would  be  infra  dig.  for  him  to 
attend  law  lectures  in  Washington  with  a  view 
to  being  admitted  to  the  bar.  After  some  re 
flection,  Mr.  Justice  White  said  that  he  did  not 
think  that  he  could  with  propriety  do  this,  but 
offered  to  supply  Roosevelt  with  law  books  and 
to  give  him  a  "quiz"  every  Saturday  evening. 
The  offer  was  accepted  with  alacrity  and  the 
books  were  collected,  but  before  the  plan  could 
be  carried  out,  Roosevelt  had  ceased  to  be  Vice- 
President.  This  is  a  good  illustration  of  his  pas 
sion  for  improving  his  time. 


40  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

September  6,  1901,  President  McKinley  was 
shot  at  Buffalo.  He  died  on  Friday,  September 
13,  and  Theodore  Roosevelt  became  President 
of  the  United  States. 

The  news  of  McKinley's  death,  conveyed  by 
messenger,  found  Roosevelt  in  the  Adirondacks 
on  a  tramping  expedition  just  returning  from 
the  top  of  Mount  Marcy.  A  ten-mile  walk,  a 
rapid  and  reckless  ride  in  the  storm,  and  a  flight 
of  a  mile  a  minute  by  railroad  brought  him  to 
Buffalo,  where  he  took  the  oath  of  office  on 
Saturday,  September  14.  In  response  to  the 
request  of  Mr.  Root,  then  Secretary  of  War, 
that  he  take  the  oath  of  office  at  once,  Roose 
velt  said:  — 

I  shall  take  the  oath  of  office  in  obedience  to  your 
request,  sir,  and  in  doing  so,  it  shall  be  my  aim  to 
continue  absolutely  unbroken  the  policies  of  Presi 
dent  McKinley  for  the  peace,  prosperity,  and  honor 
of  our  beloved  country. 

After  he  had  taken  the  oath  of  office,  he 
said: — 

In  order  to  help  me  keep  the  promise  I  have  taken, 
I  would  ask  the  Cabinet  to  retain  their  positions  at 
least  for  some  months  to  come.  I  shall  rely  upon 
you,  gentlemen,  upon  your  loyalty  and  fidelity,  to 
help  me. 


FROM   1876  TO  1901  41 

At  this  time  I  wrote  Roosevelt  as  follows:  — 

PRINCETON,  MASSACHUSETTS, 
22  Sept.,  1901. 

I  have  been  profoundly  moved  by  the  sad  incidents 
of  the  recent  past,  but1*  am  beginning  to  see  that 
out  of  this  great  sorrow  much  good  may  come  to  us. 
You  cannot  move  eighty  millions  of  people  with  a 
common  impulse  without  bringing  them  permanently 
into  closer  sympathy. 

If  William  McKinley  has  cemented  this  Union 
with  his  blood,  the  sacrifice  becomes  a  triumph.  I 
have  for  a  long  time  felt  certain  that  you  would  be 
President  of  the  United  States  by  nomination  and 
election.  I  feel  so  now.  Meantime,  is  it  not  some 
thing  to  be  deeply  grateful  for,  that  you  have  a 
united  country  and  a  united  party  behind  you,  free 
from  any  bitterness  that  always  accompanies  a  con 
test  for  nomination  and  election? 

May  God  give  you  the  strength  and  wisdom,  as  I 
know  He  will,  to  fill  the  great  office,  to  which  you 
have  been  so  mysteriously  called,  to  the  lasting  bene 
fit  of  your  countrymen. 

To  this  I  received  the  following  reply:  — 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION 
WASHINGTON 

September  25,  1901. 

I  thank  you  for  your  letter  and  appreciate  it. 

Certainly  no  one  had  ever  reached  the  office 
of  President  through  such  an  unusual  pathway. 
No  one  would  seriously  contend  that,  up  to  this 


42  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

point,  Roosevelt  had  given  evidence  of  any 
political  ambition  or  done  anything  with  the 
purpose  to  advance  his  political  fortunes.  He 
entered  the  Legislature  unexpectedly  and,  as  he 
thought  and  intended,  for  a  single  year.  After 
three  years  of  service,  he  voluntarily  abandoned 
politics  and  engaged  in  other  pursuits.  He  was 
called  to  a  place  in  the  Civil  Service  Commis 
sion  and  as  Police  Commissioner,  neither  office 
offering  the  slightest  hope  of  political  prefer 
ment.  He  became  Assistant  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  and  left  the  office  to  be  a  soldier.  He  was 
elected  Governor  without  the  slightest  volition 
of  his  own,  was  forced  into  the  Vice-Presidency, 
and  made  President  by  the  act  of  God.  There 
is  lacking  in  his  progress  every  element  that 
usually  makes  for  political  advancement. 


CHAPTER  II 

CHANGING   SOCIAL  AND   INDUSTRIAL 
CONDITIONS 

1  SHALL  in  what  follows  disregard  the  chron 
ological  order  of  events  and  treat  separately 
the  different  topics  which  I  discuss.  Before 
dealing  with  the  Roosevelt  Administration,  it 
may  be  well  to  consider  some  of  the  changes 
that  had  taken  place  in  the  country  since  the 
Republican  party  was  founded.  Not  only  were 
the  political  problems  very  different  in  1900 
from  those  in  1865,  but  the  electorate  had  ex 
perienced  a  complete  transformation.  New  gen 
erations  had  been  born  and  our  population 
had  been  greatly  increased  by  immigration 
from  many  foreign  countries,  at  first  from  the 
north  and  then  from  the  south  of  Europe.  I 
have  a  theory  that  the  Civil  War  had  a  far 
greater  influence  upon  the  political  history  of 
the  country  subsequent  to  1865  than  is  gener 
ally  realized.  Up  to  that  time  it  was  the  great 
est  war  of  history;  more  men  were  engaged  in  it, 
and  more  were  lost  upon  the  field  of  battle  and 


44  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

by  disease  than  in  any  other  one  conflict  until 
the  present  colossal  struggle  in  Europe.  The 
character  of  the  men  was  higher  on  both  sides 
than  in  any  of  the  armies  the  world  had  ever 
seen.  The  soldiers,  for  the  most  part,  were  mere 
boys.  Speaking  now  of  the  North,  we  had,  I 
believe,  at  one  time  or  another,  something  like 
2,650,000  enlistments  in  the  army  and  navy 
out  of  a  population  of  22,000,000.  In  Massa 
chusetts  we  had  152,000  enlistments  out  of  a 
population  of  1,230,000.  Suppose  that  three 
individuals  were,  through  family  and  other  ties, 
vitally  interested  in  the  fortunes  of  every  sol 
dier,  we  had  out  of  our  population  of  1,230,000, 
say  600,000  who  were  in  or  followed  every  battle 
with  the  keenest  personal  solicitude,  and  there 
should  be  added  to  this  number  many  more 
who,  without  any  direct  personal  stake  in  the 
conflict  through  near  kinsmen  in  the  field,  were 
engaged  actively  in  relief  work  for  the  soldiers 
or  for  their  families  at  home.  . 

Apply  this  same  measure  to  all  of  the  twenty- 
three  loyal  States,  and  we  should  find  over  nine 
millions  of  our  people  who  were  in  the  army  or 
had  a  direct  personal  interest  in  its  fortunes. 
Similarly,  in  the  South,  out  of  a  white  popula- 


CHANGING  CONDITIONS  45 

tion  of  something  less  than  5,500,000  with  an 
enrollment  of  1,100,000  in  their  armies,  there 
were  4,400,000  persons  who  were  serving  at  one 
time  or  another,  or  had  a  direct  personal  in 
terest  in  the  army.  When  these  men  were  mus 
tered  out,  being  still,  for  the  most  part,  young  in 
years,  but  hardened  veterans  in  the  sternest  of 
experiences  and  prematurely  matured,  they 
were  scattered  North  and  South  among  our 
32,000,000  people. 

At  the  North,  through  the  Grand  Army  of 
the  Republic,  and  at  the  South,  through  a  similar 
organization,  the  war  spirit  was  kept  active  in 
every  community  in  the  country  with  all  the 
convictions  and  prejudices  inseparable  there 
from.  The  experience  on  the  field  of  battle  by 
the  men,  and  at  home  by  the  men  and  women 
who  waited  anxiously,  was  one  never  to  be  for 
gotten  by  that  generation.  The  rank  and  file  of 
these  great  armies  was  speedily  absorbed  in  civil 
life.  Many  of  the  soldiers  entered  public  life  and 
were  members  of  our  State  Legislatures  and  of 
both  houses  of  Congress.  In  the  54th  Congress, 
veterans  were  a  majority  of  the  Judiciary,  Mili 
tary  Affairs,  Appropriations,  and  Ways  and 
Means  Committees.  It  is  a  fair  statement  that 


46  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

our  industrial  and  political  life  was  dominated 
by  the  opinions  that  had  been  formed  and 
hardened  during  the  war,  and  even  our  best 
men,  or  some  of  them,  took  into  the  field  of 
business  and  politics  the  rule  of  conduct  of  the 
battlefield,  that  might  makes  right,  that  the  end 
justifies  the  means.  Burke  says  somewhere: 
"Wars  suspend  the  rules  of  moral  obligation 
and  what  is  long  suspended  is  in  danger  of  being 
totally  abrogated.  Civil  Wars  strike  deepest  of 
all  into  the  manners  of  the  people;  they  vitiate 
their  politics,  they  pervert  their  natural  taste 
and  relish  of  equity  and  justice." 

Democrats  and  Republicans  fought  shoulder 
to  shoulder  in  the  Northern  armies.  Never 
theless,  the  North  looked  upon  the  war  as  a 
Republican  war  and  upon  the  great  war  meas 
ures  as  Republican  measures,  and  so  it  hap 
pened  that  the  same  spirit  that  animated  the 
army  in  the  field  dominated  the  party  in  poli 
tics.  An  election  must  be  carried  —  why!  to 
save  the  country,  and  in  that  holy  cause  all 
means  were  justifiable,  that  were  necessary  to 
attain  that  end.  The  Republican  party  that  had 
fought  the  war  through  was  the  dominant  party, 
its  policies  were  carried  into  execution  with 


CHANGING  CONDITIONS  47 

the  determination  and  precision  which  charac 
terized  the  movements  of  an  army.  The  govern 
ment  which  had  been  saved  at  a  fearful  cost 
was  to  be  administered  by  those  who  had  saved 
it,  as  they  thought  best.  To  illustrate  the  hold 
the  Republican  party  had  on  its  members  who 
had  lived  through  the  Civil  War,  I  shall  quote, 
from  an  article  that  appeared  in  one  of  the  mag 
azines  some  time  ago,  what  a  young  man  said 
of  his  father:  — 

To  him  it  was  little  short  of  treason  to  vote  any 
other  than  the  Republican  ticket.  I  remember  now 
the  gloom  in  our  family  when  we  heard  that  Elaine 
was  beaten.  I  think  my  father  had  an  idea  that 
Cleveland  would  undo  all  the  achievements  of  the 
war.  At  that  time  it  was  impressed  on  us  children 
that  the  Republican  party  had  saved  the  Union.  The 
name  "Republican"  became  pretty  nearly  sacred 
to  us. 

I  am  not  now  criticizing  the  spirit,  —  indeed, 
I  have  much  sympathy  with  it,  —  I  am  stat 
ing  the  fact.  It  was  a  great  generation  of  men 
that  the  war  developed.  Every  President  from 
Grant  to  McKinley,  save  Arthur  and  Cleve 
land,  had  served  in  the  war,  and  Arthur  was,  I 
believe,  prominent  in  the  administration  of  the 
New  York  militia,  and  was  trained  in  the  same 


48  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

school  with  the  other  Republican  leaders.  Is  it 
any  cause  for  surprise,  then,  that  the  purpose, 
the  discipline,  the  determination  which  domi 
nated  the  Union  army  on  the  battlefield  should 
have  dominated  the  Republican  party  in  poli 
tics.  Thus  animated,  it  accomplished  much 
and  also  afforded  much  just  ground  for  criti 
cism,  for  the  very  reason  that  some  of  its  leaders 
carried  the  ethics  of  war  into  political  strife, 
and,  with  their  experience,  could  hardly  have 
been  expected  to  do  anything  else.  While  that 
generation  lived,  there  was  nothing  of  doubt 
or  uncertainty  in  the  policies  or  management  of 
the  party.  When  that  generation  passed  off 
the  stage,  —  as  it  did  with  the  death  of  Mc- 
Kinley  and  Hanna,  —  a  new  generation  suc 
ceeded  to  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  state; 
a  generation  to  which  the  war  was  a  matter  of 
history,  rather  than  of  experience;  a  generation 
that  had  not  passed  through  that  awful  trial; 
in  some  ways,  perhaps,  a  better  generation,  in 
others  not  so  well  disciplined;  certainly  a  differ 
ent  one. 

It  was  by  men  of  this  later  generation  that 
our  political  and  social  questions  were  to  be 
discussed  and  settled.  The  men  of  the  former 


CHANGING  CONDITIONS  49 

generation  could  not  do  more  than  save  the 
country;  that  certainly  was  a  service  that  en 
titles  them  to  our  gratitude  for  all  time:  to  them, 
other  questions  by  comparison  naturally  seemed 
insignificant.  Thus  it  happened  that  the  men 
of  the  new  generation,  secure  in  their  citizen 
ship  and  threatened  by  no  great  calamity,  were 
engaged  in  building  a  superstructure  upon 
foundations  which  were  laid  under  conditions 
of  extreme  difficulty.  Meantime,  the  spirit  of 
grim  determination  of  those  who,  in  sweat  and 
blood,  preserved  the  Union  was  succeeded  by  a 
spirit  of  unrest,  of  doubt,  and  of  inquiry.  That 
feeling  was  increasing  when  Roosevelt  became 
President  and  was  more  clearly  accentuated 
when  he  was  nominated  in  1904  and  became  the 
dominant  force  in  our  political  life. 

If,  then,  we  can  assume  that  the  war  spirit, 
as  I  will  call  it  for  lack  of  a  better  name,  per 
vaded  the  Republican  party  and  the  North  and 
insured  unity  of  action  for  so  many  years,  what 
happened  to  weaken  it  and  to  make  discord 
where,  in  spite  of  temporary  lapses,  compara 
tive  harmony  so  long  prevailed?  I  have  sug 
gested  that  the  war  spirit  had  not  only  grown 
weaker  because  the  generation  inspired  by  it 


50  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

had  passed  on,  but  also  because  the  weakening 
influence  was  being  spread  over  a  constantly 
increasing  number  of  people  through  the  in 
crease  in  our  population,  by  the  birth  of  new 
generations,  and  by  immigration.  The  popula 
tion  of  the  twenty-three  loyal  States,  in  1860, 
was  22,044,714.  The  population  of  all  the  States, 
excluding  the  eleven  States  once  in  rebellion, 
was,  in  1910,  69,572,332,  an  increase  of  47,527,- 
618;  so  that  even  had  the  Northern  war  spirit 
continued  in  unabated  strength  it  must  have 
influenced  a  constantly  and  rapidly  diminishing 
proportion  of  the  people.  Then,  too,  the  spirit 
could  not  be  inherited,  for  the  reason  that  much 
of  this  increase  in  the  population  of  the  North 
ern  States  was  due  to  immigrants  who  can  have 
little  share  in  our  traditions.  Since  1860  we  have 
received  into  the  country,  including  the  year 
1912,  24,573,337  immigrants,  and  most  of  them 
settled  in  the  North  and  West.  Many,  no  doubt, 
have  returned  to  their  native  countries.  Of  the 
total  white  male  population,  twenty-one  years 
old  or  over,  North  Dakota  contains  of  foreign- 
born,  fifty-eight  per  cent;  Minnesota,  fifty-one 
per  cent;  Wisconsin,  forty-five  per  cent;  one  third 
of  the  population  of  Massachusetts  is  foreign- 


CHANGING  CONDITIONS  51 

born.  In  1910,  there  were  about  13,345,545  for 
eign-born  whites  in  the  United  States.  In  the 
eleven  seceding  States  about  3  per  cent  of  the 
white  population  were  foreign-born.  In  the 
States  other  than  the  eleven  seceding  States, 
including  the  colored  people,  about  19  per  cent 
of  the  entire  population  were  foreign-born.  It 
is  hardly  necessary  to  multiply  statistics  to 
show  how  disproportionately  small  the  foreign- 
born  population  is  in  the  South.  My  conclu 
sion,  then,  as  to  the  section  of  country  outside 
of  the  seceding  States,  is  that  a  very  potent 
influence  in  the  apparent  lack  of  unity  in  the 
Republican  party  in  these  latter  days,  and  one 
to  which  too  little  importance  has  been  at 
tached,  has  been  the  weakening  of  the  war  spirit 
accompanied  by  a  large  increase  in  our  popula 
tion,  a  considerable  portion  of  which  is  unin 
fluenced  by  our  traditions.  The  question  might 
naturally  be  asked,  if  what  I  say  about  the 
Northern  section  of  the  country  be  true,  why 
is  it  that  there  has  been  no  disintegration  of  the 
solid  South?  The  answer  is  that  the  animosity 
engendered  by  the  war  was  naturally  very  much 
more  intense  in  the  South  than  in  the  North 
and  that  the  native  population  in  the  South  has 


52  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

not  been  increased  by  immigration  to  the  extent 
that  it  has  been  in  the  North. 

Atone  time  or  another  substantially  1,200,000 
men  from  the  Confederate  States  were  under 
arms  during  the  Civil  War,  —  practically  the 
entire  population  available  for  military  service, 
—  so  that  it  is  fair  to  say  —  assuming,  as  I 
have  for  the  North,  that  three  of  the  population 
of  the  South  were  vitally  interested  in  the  for 
tunes  of  each  soldier  —  that  between  four  and 
five  millions  of  the  population  of  the  South 
had  a  direct  personal  contact  with  the  opera 
tions  of  the  war.  The  white  population  was 
5,469,462.  We  may  go  even  further  and  say 
that  the  entire  white  population  of  the  South 
was  brought  in  direct  personal  contact  with  the 
experience  of  the  battlefield..  Almost  all  the 
battles  were  fought  in  the  South,  sections  of 
the  country  were  stripped  bare  by  both  armies, 
the  fortunes  of  many  great  families  were  en 
tirely  destroyed,  and  very  naturally,  when  the 
war  was  over,  a  feeling  of  great  bitterness  re 
mained,  a  feeling  that  has  been  transmitted  from 
one  generation  to  another.  For  this  reason  we 
have  had  in  the  South  what  we  would  naturally 
expect  to  find  under  these  conditions,  a  solid 


CHANGING  CONDITIONS  53 

support  for  the  Democratic  party,  representing 
not  so  much  allegiance  to  that  party  as  an  un 
dying  hostility  to  the  Republican  party,  which 
the  Southern  people  held  responsible  for  the 
war,  for  the  equally  cruel  experiences  of  the  re 
construction  period,  and  for  the  negro  problem. 

It  may  be  added  that  in  the  South  the  de 
scendants  of  those  who  lived  through  the  Civil 
War  feel,  at  least  some  of  them,  even  more  bit 
terly  than  their  elders,  because,  as  a  result  of 
the  losses  incident  upon  the  war,  they  have 
been  denied  opportunities  for  education  and  a 
position  which  by  inheritance  is  theirs,  and  have 
been  compelled  to  turn  for  a  bare  livelihood  to 
occupations  which  in  the  earlier  days  would 
have  been  considered  ill  suited  to  them. 

That  feeling  of  bitterness  is,  of  course,  grow 
ing  weaker  as  new  generations  enter  upon  the 
duties  of  citizenship,  but  it  has  remained  a  very 
potent  influence  much  longer  than  the  corre 
sponding  influence  in  the  North. 

I  was  a  delegate  to  the  Convention  that  nomi 
nated  Roosevelt  for  President  in  1904.  A  por 
trait,  of  heroic  size,  of  Mark  Hanna,  hung  over 
the  platform.  I  said  to  a  man  who  sat  next 
to  me,  "What  would  happen  if  Hanna  were 


54  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

living?"  He  said  in  reply,  "He  would  be  nomi 
nated  here  to-day."  Of  course  he  would  not 
have  been  nominated;  I  merely  mention  this 
as  indicating  that  the  "old  order"  which  was 
incarnated  in  Hanna  had  not  then  passed  away; 
but  it  was  passing.  I  felt  it  in  the  atmosphere 
of]  the  Convention.  An  entirely  new  type  of 
man  was  President,  who  had  no  knowledge  of 
the  Civil  War  excepting  that  gained  from  books 
and  from  his  family  associations  both  with  the 
North  and  with  the  South.  When  McKinley 
and  Hanna  died,  the  old  dynasty  fell.  Roose 
velt  became  President  in  his  own  right  March 
4,  1905.  He  was  not  hampered  by  either  a  busi 
ness  or  professional  experience.  I  mean  by  this 
that  he  had  not  acquired  that  over-caution  which 
is  inseparable  from  either  calling;  the  former 
leading  to  a  dread  of  anything  that  will  "dis 
turb  business,"  and  the  latter  forbidding  any 
action  based  upon  anything  short  of  legal  evi 
dence.  Roosevelt,  as  I  have  tried  to  demon 
strate,  was  intense  in  his  devotion  to  the  job  in 
hand,  whatever  it  might  be,  intent  upon  achiev 
ing  results,  and  a  man  who  never  took  counsel 
of  his  fears.  I  do  not  mean  by  that  to  say  that 
he  acted  purely  from  impulse,  though  his  acts 


CHANGING  CONDITIONS  55 

may  sometimes  have  given  that  impression. 
John  Hay,  after  he  had  been  in  his  cabinet  for 
three  years,  said  of  him: —  . 

Roosevelt  is  prompt  and  energetic,  but  he  takes 
infinite  pains  to  get  at  the  facts  before  he  acts.  In  all 
the  crises  in  which  he  has  been  accused  of  undue 
haste,  his  action  has  been  the  result  of  long  medita 
tion  and  well-reasoned  conviction.  If  he  thinks  rap 
idly,  that  is  no  fault;  he  thinks  thoroughly,  and  that 
is  the  essential. 

The  people  were  ready  to  follow  a  new  leader 
ship.  The  former  generation  had  successfully 
fought  for  the  preservation  of  the  nation,  had 
stimulated  the  building  of  railroads  by  lavish 
government  grants,  had  tempted  settlers  to  take 
up  lands  in  the  West  upon  their  own  terms. 
The  new  generation,  under  the  leadership  of 
Roosevelt,  was  to  fight  for  conservation  of  our 
resources,  for  the  quickening  of  the  public  con 
science  which,  once  enlightened,  would  demand 
the  proper  regulation  of  corporations,  would 
curb  the  tendency  to  private  monopoly  in  public 
land  and  natural  resources,  and  would  recognize 
that  labor  has  its  rights  as  well  as  capital,  and 
that  neither  should  prey  upon  the  other.  It 
must  in  truth  be  said  that  the  people  were  far 
in  advance  of  Congress  when  Roosevelt  became 


56  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

President  and  Congress  continued  to  lag  behind 
for  some  time  thereafter.  Both  branches  were 
still  largely  in  control  of  men  bred  in  the  "war 
school"  of  which  I  have  spoken.  They  led  well 
and  wisely  for  the  most  part,  but  looked  with 
suspicion  upon  the  new  school  of  thought,  and 
while  they  granted  much,  it  was  with  a  some 
what  niggardly  hand  and  protesting  spirit.  Do 
not  imagine  that  I  am  over-critical  of  these  men. 
I  belonged  myself  to  that  wing  of  the  party.  In 
safe  progress  there  must  always  be  those  who 
press  forward,  the  pioneers,  and  others  of  just 
as  patriotic  purpose  who  perform  the  perhaps 
more  ignoble  but  no  less  necessary  task  of  seeing 
that  the  wheels  of  progress  do  not  revolve  in 
the  wrong  direction.  The  conservative  of  to-day 
was  the  progressive  of  yesterday,  the  progres 
sive  of  to-day  is  the  conservative  of  to-morrow, 
so  rapidly  do  our  views  change  in  response  to 
public  opinion. 

I  must  not  omit  to  say  a  few  words  about 
changed  industrial  conditions  between  1865  and 
1900  which  created  an  entirely  new  set  of  prob 
lems  to  be  dealt  with.  Our  great  industrial 
progress  has  been  made  since  the  Civil  War, 
and  it  was  not  until  1894  that  we  became  first 


CHANGING  CONDITIONS  57 

among  the  manufacturing  nations  of  the  world; 
but  it  is  to  the  development  in  the  years  follow 
ing  upon  1897  that  I  would  call  particular  atten 
tion,  for  it  was  then  that  the  problems  with 
which  we  have  been  and  are  attempting  to  deal 
were  thrust  upon  us  with  startling  rapidity. 

There  had  been  a  growing  practice,  among 
our  manufacturers  and  managers  of  railroads,  to 
have  some  understanding  among  themselves  as 
to  the  prices  at  which  their  commodities  should 
be  sold,  in  order  to  prevent  disastrous  competi 
tion.  I  shall  here  discontinue  further  reference 
by  name  to  railroads,  as  I  shall  discuss  them 
elsewhere.  This  led  to  the  formation  of  trade 
combinations  and  pools,  in  different  branches 
of  business,  more  or  less  protective,  the  weakest 
form  being  a  simple  understanding  as  to  prices 
and  the  strongest  form  a  pool  when,  say,  five 
companies  engaged  in  the  same  industry  would 
allot  the  sale  of  their  product  in  certain  propor 
tions:  one,  fifty  per  cent;  another,  thirty,  an 
other,  ten,  and  so  on,  aggregating  one  hundred 
per  cent.  Any  one  overselling  his  allotment  paid 
into  the  pool,  any  one  underselling  his  allotment 
received  from  the  pool.  All  these  devices  were 
more  or  less  ineffective.  A  disturbing  influence 


58  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

now  appeared,  as  a  result  of  the  decision,  in  1897, 
in  the  Trans-Missouri  cases,  construing  the  Sher 
man  Anti-trust  Act  of  1890,  which  I  shall  ex 
amine  in  more  detail  later.  The  Supreme  Court 
in  this  decision  held  that  the  Sherman  Act 
applied  to  all  contracts  in  restraint  of  trade, 
whether  they  be  reasonable  or  unreasonable,  j 

It  followed  from  this  decision  that  all  con 
tracts  affecting  interstate  commerce  which  in 
any  way  restrained  trade  were  invalid  and 
criminal. 

It  became  impossible,  therefore,  for  manu 
facturers  and  others  safely  to  enter  into  any 
agreement,  however  reasonable,  for  the  main 
tenance  of  prices,  and  hence  they  were  driven 
to  the  conclusion  that  if  they  could  not  combine 
they  must  unite;  in  other  words,  it  being  a  crimi 
nal  offense  for  A,  B,  and  C  to  agree  together 
to  maintain  reasonable  prices  for  their  products, 
they  were  compelled  to  consolidate  their  in 
terests  to  get  the  protection  they  needed,  and 
thus  it  appears  that  the  decision  in  the  Trans- 
Missouri  cases  had  a  powerful  influence  in  has 
tening  the  formation  of  the  great  consolidations 
or  trusts  with  which  we  are  familiar. 

And  here  another  factor  entered  the  field  of 


CHANGING  CONDITIONS  59 

business  consolidation  —  the  bankers;  there 
tofore  any  permanent  consolidation  of  interests 
in  the  form  of  combinations  and  pools  had  been 
unsatisfactory  because  the  members  would  not 
all  keep  faith,  and  often  one  stubborn  person 
refusing  to  make  any  kind  of  a  trade  agreement 
would  impose  disastrous  conditions  upon  his 
business  competitors.  It  was  never  dreamed 
prior  to  1897  that  some  outside  power  could 
step  in  and,  if  necessary,  buy  out  all  the  mem 
bers  of  any  given  industry,  but  this  power  the 
bankers,  with  their  great  financial  resources, 
supplied.  It  was  a  sort  of  Aladdin's  lamp.  A 
given  industry,  if  controlled,  could  make  prof 
its  of  $$00,000  per  year;  the  bankers  stepped  in 
and  would  offer  $5,000,000  for  all  the  companies 
involved  —  the  individual  companies  could  take 
cash  or  stock  for  their  properties.  The  sanguine 
took  stock,  the  pessimists  took  cash,  and  the 
deal  was  closed  overnight.  A  certain  amount  of 
preferred  stock  was  issued  —  cumulative,  per 
haps,  and  sold  to  the  banker's  customers;  the 
promoters  took  the  common  stock,  and  would 
at  a  later  day  perhaps  sell  at  a  good  price  what 
had  cost  them  little.  There  was  nothing  neces 
sarily  immoral  about  this,  but  it  created  a  large 


60  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

number  of  consolidations  or  trusts,  as  they  were 
miscalled,  concentrated  the  control  of  enormous 
capitalization,  and  made  the  "trust  problem," 
which  we  are  far  from  having  settled  yet.  These, 
then,  were  the  conditions,  political  and  indus 
trial,  which  confronted  Roosevelt  when  he  be 
came  President,  and  if  he  pressed  new  questions 
upon  the  country  for  consideration,  it  was  be 
cause  changed  conditions  demanded  their  dis 
cussion  and  settlement. 

These  questions  were  forced  upon  him  by  the 
progress  of  events  over  which  he  had  no  con 
trol.  He,  undaunted,  did  not  dodge  them,  but 
insistently  and  persistently  forced  their  consid 
eration  upon  the  country. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  consider  in  any  de 
tail  all  the  events  of  the  Roosevelt  Administra 
tion.  If  one  would  get  a  correct  impression  of 
a  rugged  coast,  it  is  only  necessary  to  note  the 
prominent  headlands  and  the  deep  indenta 
tions,  and  with  these  alone  history  will  be  con 
cerned.  Roosevelt  brought  to  his  great  task 
high  ideals,  prodigious  industry,  an  active  and 
an  educated  mind,  a  good  deal  of  political  ex 
perience,  and  an  honest  desire  to  do  his  best. 

There  are  many  subjects  to  which  he  devoted 


CHANGING  CONDITIONS  61 

much  attention  and  of  which  he  spoke  in  almost 
all  his  messages  to  Congress.  Prominent  among 
them  was  the  proper  method  of  dealing  with 
the  trusts.  In  his  first  message  to  Congress, 
delivered  in  December,  1901,  after  he  had  been 
President  for  three  months,  he  spoke  of  changed 
business  conditions,  urged  caution  in  dealing 
with  corporations,  and  deprecated  legislation 
in  the  absence  of  calm  inquiry.  He  recognized, 
however,  certain  harmful  tendencies  and  ex 
pressed  the  opinion  that  combinations  should 
be  supervised  rather  than  prohibited.  He 
thought  publicity  the  first  essential  in  dealing 
with  the  subject  —  a  suggestion  he  had  made 
when  he  was  Governor  of  New  York.  He  added 
that,  in  his  opinion,  a  law  could  be  drafted  akin 
to  the  Interstate  Commerce  Act  which  would 
give  Congress  effective  control  over  these  large 
corporations. 

At  this  point  it  may  be  well  to  state  what  I 
understand  to  have  been  the  law  on  this  subject 
when  Roosevelt  succeeded  to  the  Presidency, 
to  which  I  have  already  briefly  alluded. 

The  Sherman  Act  was  passed  July  2,  1890, 
for  the  purpose,  as  it  was  then  stated,  of  ex 
tending  the  provisions  of  the  common  law  to 


62  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

interstate  commerce  and  to  enforce  them  by 
suitable  penalties.  By  the  common  law  is  meant, 
"those  principles,  usages,  and  rules  of  action 
applicable  to  the  government  and  security  of 
persons  and  of  property  which  do  not  rest  for 
their  authority  upon  any  express  and  positive 
declaration  of  the  will  of  the  legislature." 

Contracts  in  unreasonable  restraint  of  trade 
had  always  been  void  at  common  law.  The 
enactment  of  the  Sherman  Act  made  the  com 
mon  law  statute  law  for  the  United  States  and 
something  more,  and  declared,  in  substance, 
every  contract  in  whatever  form  in  restraint  of 
interstate  trade  to  be  illegal,  and  that  every 
person  making  such  contract  should  be  deemed 
guilty  of  a  misdemeanor  punishable  by  fine  or 
imprisonment  at  the  discretion  of  the  court;  and 
that  every  person  monopolizing  or  attempting 
to  monopolize  any  part  of  interstate  trade 
should  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor 
punishable  by  fine  or  imprisonment  at  the  dis 
cretion  of  the  court. 

The  act  as  at  first  interpreted  by  the  courts 
did  not  seriously  embarrass  business  combina 
tions,  for  the  reason  that  it  was  held  not  to  ap 
ply  to  contracts  not  in  unreasonable  restraint 


CHANGING  CONDITIONS  63 

of  trade.  As  a  rule,  where  the  combination 
affected  did  not  control  the  entire  product  in 
any  given  industry,  it  was  held  to  be  not  in 
hibited  by  the  Sherman  Act,  which  was  passed 
with  the  declared  purpose  to  extend  to  inter 
state  commerce  the  common  law  affecting  con 
tracts  in  restraint  of  trade.  It  was  a  well-known 
doctrine  of  the  common  law  that  the  validity 
of  contracts  restricting  competition  was  to  be 
determined  by  the  reasonableness  of  the  restric 
tion,  and  hence  contracts  made  for  a  legal  pur 
pose,  which  were  not  unreasonably  injurious 
to  the  public  welfare,  and  which  imposed  no 
heavier  restraint  on  trade  than  the  interest  of 
the  favored  party  required,  were,  as  a  rule,  held 
to  be  valid,  both  before  and  for  a  time  after  the 
passage  of  the  Sherman  Act. 

In  March,  1897,  in  the  Trans-Missouri  cases, 
to  which  I  have  referred,  the  Supreme  Court 
placed  the  construction  upon  the  Sherman 
Anti-Trust  Act  (at  least  it  was  generally  so 
understood)  that  all  contracts  affecting  inter 
state  commerce  which  in  any  way  restrained 
trade,  whether  reasonable  or  not,  were  invalid, 
the  conclusion  of  a  majority  of  the  court  being 
that  "Congress  has,  so  far  as  its  jurisdiction 


64  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

extends,  prohibited  all  contracts  or  combina 
tions  in  the  form  of  trusts  entered  into  for  the 
purpose  of  restraining  trade  and  commerce." 

This  decision  was,  as  a  matter  of  course,  fol 
lowed  by  the  lower  courts,  and  the  trade  com 
binations  which  before  the  decision  had  been 
held  to  be  legal  were  by  it  made  illegal.  This 
construction  of  the  act  led,  as  we  all  remember, 
to  much  disturbance  because  business  men,  act 
ing  in  good  faith  in  entering  into  trade  agree 
ments  for  the  control  of  prices  to  prevent  dis 
astrous  competition,  agreements  which  were 
very  common  in  the  business  world,  made 
themselves  liable  to  criminal  prosecution. 

The  gravity  of  the  situation  was  widely  rec 
ognized  not  only  by  lawyers  and  business  men, 
but  by  publicists  and  all  thoughtful  men  in 
terested  in  public  affairs.  Such,  in  brief,  was 
the  condition  of  this  matter  when  Roosevelt 
came  to  the  Presidency,  and  for  this  he  sought 
a  remedy. 

In  1902,  he  received  the  degree  of  LL.D.  from 
Harvard,  which  President  Eliot  conferred  in 
these  words:  — 

Theodore  Roosevelt,  President  of  the  United 
States,  from  his  youth  a  member  of  this  Society  of 


CHANGING  CONDITIONS  65 

Scholars,  now  in  his  prime,  a  true  type  of  the  sturdy 
gentleman  and  high-minded  public  servant  in  a 
democracy. 

At  this  time  Secretary  Hay,  in  a  letter  to 
Roosevelt,  referring  to  the  Alumni  Dinner, 
wrote:  "President  Eliot,  when  he  sat  down, 
said:  'What  a  man!  Genius,  force,  and  courage, 
and  such  evident  honesty!" 

In  Roosevelt's  message  of  December,  1902, 
he  asked  for  a  special  appropriation  to  enforce 
the  Anti-Trust  Act  and  condemned  the  reduc 
tion  of  the  tariff  as  a  means  for  reaching  the 
trusts.  He  demanded  fair  treatment  for  both 
capital  and  labor,  and  said:  — 

Exactly  as  business  men  find  that  they  must  often 
work  through  corporations,  ...  so  it  is  often  neces 
sary  for  laboring  men  to  work  in  federation.  Both 
kinds  of  federation,  capitalistic  and  labor,  can  do 
much  good,  and,  as  a  necessary  corollary,  they  can 
both  do  evil  .  .  .  attack  should  be  made  not  upon 
either  form,  but  upon  what  may  be  bad  in  both. 

In  response  to  the  President's  recommenda 
tion,  Congress,  in  February,  1903,  created  the 
Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor,  including 
the  Bureau  of  Corporations,  with  authority  to 
secure  proper  publicity. 
v  It  may  be  said  here  that  Roosevelt  pressed 


66  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

to  a  hearing,  in  1904,  the  case  of  the  Northern 
Securities  Company,  which  involved  the  valid 
ity  of  an  agreement  between  the  majority 
owners  in  the  Great  Northern  Railroad  and  the 
Northern  Pacific  Railroad  to  consolidate  their 
interests  in  a  holding  company.  The  relief 
sought  in  the  courts  was  an  injunction  against 
the  perfecting  of  the  arrangement  and  its  dis 
ruption  so  far  as  it  might  have  been  effected, 
the  allegation  being  that  this  was  such  a  com 
bination  in  restraint  of  trade  as  was  inhibited 
by  the  Sherman  Anti-Trust  Act.  The  court  sus 
tained  the  contention  and  held  that  this  was 
an  arrangement  to  avoid  competition  and  to 
monopolize  transportation  in  the  territory 
affected.  This  effectually  fixed  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  Government  over  this  class  of  transac 
tions  and  was  the  purpose  which  Roosevelt  had 
in  view  in  pressing  the  suit.  Some  doubt  upon 
this  point  had  existed  because  of  the  Knight 
case,  decided  in  January,  1895.  This  involved 
the  purchase,  by  the  American  Sugar  Refining 
Company,  of  the  stock  of  four  corporations 
engaged  in  the  refining  and  sale  of  sugar  in 
Philadelphia.  The  court  held  that  the  acquisi 
tion  of  the  stock  did  not  bring  the  case  within 


CHANGING  CONDITIONS  67 

the  provisions  of  the  Sherman  Act,  and  evi 
dently  disregarded  the  purpose,  which  was  to 
effect  a  monopoly  in  the  sale  of  sugar.  It  will 
be  noticed  that  this  narrow  construction  of  the 
act,  which  was  thought  at  the  time  to  defeat 
the  purpose  of  the  Sherman  Act,  was  practi 
cally  abandoned  in  the  decision  of  the  case  of 
the  Northern  Securities  Company. 

In  a  speech  made  at  the  Union  League  Club, 
February  3,  1904,  Elihu  Root  said  of  the  Presi 
dent:  "You  say  he  is  an  unsafe  man.  I  tell  you 
he  is  really  the  great  conservator  of  property 
and  of  rights."  And  in  support  of  this  asser 
tion  Mr.  Root  spoke  of  the  President's  attitude 
toward  labor  unions  and  toward  trusts,  for 
bidding,  on  the  one  hand,  the  unionizing  of 
government  employment,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  pressing  of  the  Northern  Securities 
case  which  checked  speculation  and  avoided  a 
panic. 

Speaking  of  the  Northern  Securities  case, 
Roosevelt  once  said  to  me:  — 

I  talked  over  the  matter  in  full  with  Knox.  He 
believed  that  the  Knight  case  would  not  have  been 
decided  over  again  as  it  actually  was  decided,  and 
that  if  we  could  differentiate  the  Northern  Securities 
case  from  it,  we  could  secure  what  would  be  in  fact 


68  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

(although  not  in  name)  a  reversal  of  it.  This  I  felt  it 
imperative  to  secure.  The  Knight  case  practically 
denied  the  Federal  Government  power  over  corpora 
tions,  because  it  whittled  to  nothing  the  meaning  of 
"commerce  between  the  States."  It  had  to  be  upset 
or  we  could  not  get  any  efficient  control  by  the 
National  Government. 

In  his  message  of  December,  1905,  the  Presi 
dent  reiterated  his  views  about  corporations 
and  said  that  during  the  previous  four  years 
the  Department  of  Justice  had  devoted  more 
time  to  the  enforcement  of  the  Anti-Trust  Law 
than  to  anything  else,  and  added:  — 

I  do  not  believe  in  the  Government  interfering 
with  private  business  more  than  is  necessary.  I  do 
not  believe  in  the  Government  undertaking  any  work 
which  can  with  propriety  be  left  in  private  hands. 
But  neither  do  I  believe  in  the  Government  flinching 
from  overseeing  any  work  when  it  becomes  evident 
that  abuses  are  sure  to  obtain  therein  unless  there  is 
government  supervision. 

In  his  message  of  January,  1908,  he  said, 
what  he  had  so  often  said  in  substance  before:  — 

The  law  should  correct  that  portion  of  the  Sher 
man  Act  which  prohibits  all  combinations  of  the 
character  above  described,  whether  they  be  reason 
able  or  unreasonable,  but  this  should  be  done  only 
as  part  of  a  general  scheme  to  provide  for  this  effec 
tive  and  thoroughgoing  supervision  by  the  National 


CHANGING  CONDITIONS  69 

Government  of  all  the  operations  of  the  big  inter 
state  business  concerns. 

In  his  special  message  of  March,  1908,  the 
President  said:  — 

This  Anti-Trust  Act  was  a  most  unwisely  drawn 
statute.  ...  It  is  mischievous  and  unwholesome  to 
keep  upon  the  statute  book,  unmodified,  a  law  like 
the  Anti-Trust  Law,  which,  while  in  practice  only 
partially  effective  against  vicious  combinations,  has 
nevertheless  in  theory  been  construed  so  as  sweep- 
ingly  to  prohibit  every  combination  for  the  trans 
action  of  modern  business.  .  .  .  The  Congress  cannot 
afford  to  leave  it  on  the  statute  books  in  its  present 
shape. 

And  he  added  that  a  bill  had  been  presented 
to  remedy  the  situation.  So  far  as  business 
combinations  were  concerned,  this  bill  provided 
that  any  party  to  a  contract  or  combination 
might  file  a  copy  of  such  contract  with  the  Com 
missioner  of  Corporations,  whereupon  the  com 
missioner,  with  the  concurrence  of  the  Secre 
tary  of  Commerce  and  Labor,  might,  with  or 
without  a  hearing,  enter  an  order  declaring  that 
in  his  judgment  such  contract  or  combination 
is  in  unreasonable  restraint  of  trade.  If  no  such 
order  should  be  made  within  thirty  days  after 
filing  such  contract,  no  prosecution  by  the 


70  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

United  States  should  lie  unless  the  same  be  in 
unreasonable  restraint  of  trade  among  the  sev 
eral  States  or  foreign  nations.  However,  the 
United  States  might  institute  a  suit  on  account 
of  any  contract  or  combination  of  which  a  copy 
should  not  have  been  filed  or  as  to  which  an 
order  should  have  been  entered  as  provided. 

This  bill  was  considered  by  a  subcommittee 
of  the  House  Committee  on  the  Judiciary,  but 
was  never  reported.  It  will  be  noticed  that  none 
of  the  legal  questions  were  avoided  in  this  bill. 
The  duty  of  determining  whether  a  contract 
is  or  is  not  in  unreasonable  restraint  of  trade 
was  in  the  first  instance  merely  shifted  from  the 
court  to  the  Commissioner  of  Corporations. 
This  was  not  a  very  good  remedy  for  the  de 
fects  in  the  Sherman  Act,  and  I  told  the  Presi 
dent  so  at  the  time.  "You  may  be  right,"  he 
said;  "we  may  have  to  try  something  else." 
He  had  no  personal  pride  in  any  particular 
bill;  what  he  wanted  was  a  remedy.  I  am  em 
phasizing  here  his  readiness  to  deal  with  the 
question  in  a  constructive  and  not  a  destructive 
manner,  and  the  entire  absence  on  his  part  of 
hostility  to  combined  capital  as  such,  but  merely 
to  the  attendant  evils. 


"CHANGING   CONDITIONS  71 

In  the  Standard  Oil  and  Tobacco  cases,  de 
cided  in  1911,  the  Supreme  Court  adopted  the 
"rule  of  reason"  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
Sherman  Act.  Just  how  far  it  will  extend  is 
uncertain,  as  these  cases  involved  monopolies. 

The  uncertainty  as  to  the  scope  of  the  deci 
sion  must  probably  remain  until  a  case  is  de 
cided  involving  the  control  of  a  considerable 
percentage,  say,  fifty  per  cent,  or  less,  of  a  busi 
ness  into  which  others  are  free  to  enter  or  in 
which  they  are  actually  engaged.  The  case  of 
the  United  States  Steel  Corporation,  recently 
decided  in  the  District  Court  of  New  Jersey, 
favorably  to  the  corporation,  and  the  pending 
Harvester  Case  are  of  this  sort. 

;A  wise  construction  of  the  Sherman  Act 
would  seem  to  be  that  no  combination  required 
by  the  business  necessities  of  those  entering  it 
should,  where  the  monopoly  feature  is  absent, 
and  where  the  business  is  one  into  which  others 
are  free  to  enter,  be  held  to  be  a  contract  in  re 
straint  of  trade  within  the  terms  of  the  Sher 
man  Act. 

The  Sherman  Act  as  applied  to  railroads  in 
volves  a  somewhat  different  question,  and  con 
cerning  this  President  Roosevelt  said  in  1908:  — 


72  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

The  railways  of  the  country  should  be  put  com 
pletely  under  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission 
and  removed  from  the  domain  of  the  Anti-Trust  Law. 
The  power  of  the  Commission  should  be  made  thor 
oughgoing,  so  that  it  could  exercise  complete  super 
vision  and  control  over  the  issue  of  securities  as  well 
as  over  the  raising  and  lowering  of  rates.  As  regards 
rates,  at  least,  this  power  should  be  summary.  The 
power  to  investigate  the  financial  operations  and 
accounts  of  the  railways  has  been  one  of  the  most 
valuable  features  in  recent  legislation.  Power  to 
make  combinations  and  traffic  agreements  should 
be  explicitly  conferred  upon  the  railroads,  the  per 
mission  of  the  Commission  being  first  gained  and  the 
combination  or  agreement  being  published  in  all  its 
details. 

This  seems  to  me  entirely  sound.  The  fact 
is  that  in  the  Trans-Missouri  cases,  in  1897, 
the  minority  opinion  raised  the  question  as  to 
whether  the  provisions  of  the  Act  of  1890  were 
intended  to  apply  to  contracts  between  inter 
state  carriers,  entered  into  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  fairness  in  their  dealings  with  each 
other,  and  tending  to  protect  the  public  against 
improper  discrimination  and  sudden  changes  in 
rates,  and  whether  that  statute  was  intended 
to  abrogate  the  power  of  railway  companies  to 
make  contracts  that  were  expressly  sanctioned 
by  the  Interstate  Commerce  Act  of  1887.  It 


CHANGING  CONDITIONS  73 

was  pointed  out  that  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Act  was  intended  to  regulate  interstate  com 
merce  transported  by  railway  carriers,  and  that 
the  Act  of  1 890  was  a  general  law  not  referring 
to  carriers  of  interstate  commerce.  The  minor 
ity  opinion,  concurred  in  by  four  justices  of  the 
court,  was,  that  there  was  no  intention  on  the 
part  of  Congress  to  abrogate,  in  whole  or  in 
part,  the  provisions  of  the  Act  of  1887  by  the 
general  Act  of  1890,  and  that  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Act  of  1887  expressed  the  purpose 
of  Congress  to  deal  with  a  complicated,  partic 
ular  subject  requiring  special  legislation,  and 
that  the  act  was  an  initiation  of  a  policy  by 
Congress  looking  to  the  development  and  work 
ing-out  of  a  harmonious  system  to  regulate 
interstate  transportation.  There  is  grave  doubt 
as  to  whether  Congress  ever  intended  that  con 
tracts  for  the  transportation  of  persons  or  prop 
erty  from  one  State  to  another  should  be  cov 
ered  by  the  provisions  of  the  Sherman  Act  of 
1890. 

It  may  fairly  be  added  that  the  power  now 
possessed  by  the  office  of  the  Attorney-General 
over  interstate  transportation  is  one  that  should 
not  exist.  Under  the  penal  section  of  the  Sher- 


74  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

man  Act,  the  Attorney-General  is  practically 
given  the  power  to  compel  the  readjustment 
of  the  ownership  of  railroad  properties  under 
threat  of  criminal  prosecution  of  individuals. 
This  power,  rightly  exercised  by  one  Adminis 
tration,  might  be  wrongly  exercised  by  another, 
and  two  individuals  holding  the  office  of  Attor 
ney-General  might  reach  different  conclusions 
upon  the  same  state  of  facts.  Our  railroad  sys 
tems  should  not  be  at  the  mercy  of  any  indi 
vidual,  but  should  be  under  the  absolute  control 
of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  and 
once  under  such  control  should  be  free  from  the 
harassment  and  great  expense  both  to  them  and 
to  the  Government  of  suits  under  the  Sherman 
Act  which  can  only  confuse  the  situation,  al 
ready  sufficiently  complex.  The  transportation 
business  should  be  and  must  be,  if  efficient,  a 
government-regulated  monopoly. 

Roosevelt  and  the  Negro 

Several  incidents  in  Roosevelt's  Administra 
tion  brought  the  race  question  into  great  promi 
nence. 

In  October,  1901,  he  invited  Booker  Wash 
ington  to  dine  at  the  White  House.  The  South 


ROOSEVELT  AND  THE  NEGRO        75 

uttered  angry  protests  and  many  people  in  the 
North  condemned  the  act. 

The  Memphis  "Commercial  Appeal"  said: 
"President  Roosevelt  has  committed  a  blunder 
that  is  worse  than  a  crime." 

The  New  Orleans  "Statesman"  said  that 
"his  action  was  little  less  than  a  studied  insult 
to  the  South." 

The  Memphis  "Scimiter"  said  that  it  was 
"the  most  damnable  outrage  that  has  ever  been 
perpetrated  by  any  citizen  of  the  United 
States." 

On  Memorial  Day  in  1902,  Roosevelt,  in  his 
address,  condemned  lynching,  which  the  South 
regarded  as  a  sectional  utterance. 

The  President  appointed  Dr.  Crum,  a  negro, 
Collector  of  the  Port  of  Charleston.  A  great 
protest  was  made,  and  Republican  Senators 
asked  him  to  withdraw  the  appointment,  which 
he  refused  to  do,  saying  that  if  the  matter  were 
not  acted  upon  he  would  make  a  recess  appoint 
ment.  This  he  did. 

In  a  letter  to  a  citizen  of  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  who  protested  against  the  appoint 
ment  of  Dr.  Crum,  the  President  stated  his 
general  principle  as  follows :  — 


76  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

I  do  not  intend  to  appoint  any  unfit  man  to  office. 
So  far  as  I  legitimately  can,  I  shall  always  endeavor 
to  pay  regard  to  the  wishes  and  feelings  of  the  people 
of  each  locality;  but  I  cannot  consent  to  take  the 
position  that  the  doorway  of  hope  —  the  door  of 
opportunity  —  is  to  be  shut  upon  any  man,  no  mat 
ter  how  worthy,  purely  upon  the  grounds  of  race  or 
color.  Such  an  attitude  would,  according  to  my  con 
tentions,  be  fundamentally  wrong.  If,  as  you  hold, 
the  great  bulk  of  the  colored  people  are  not  yet  fit  in 
point  of  character  and  influence  to  hold  such  posi 
tions,  it  seems  to  me  that  it  is  worth  while  putting  a 
premium  upon  the  effort  among  them  to  achieve  the 
character  and  standing  which  will  fit  them. 

An  article  by  John  J.  Vertrees  in  the  June, 
1903,  number  of  the  "Olympian,"  a  magazine 
then  published  in  Nashville,  Tennessee,  con 
tained  the  following  comment  on  Roosevelt's 
negro  appointments :  — 

Mr.  McKinley  appointed  negroes  to  office  because 
they  were  negroes  —  thus  making,  as  all  perceived, 
a  mere  political  play  which  was  expected  as  a  matter 
of  course,  and  therefore  gave  no  concern,  but  Mr. 
Roosevelt  appoints  regardless  of  race  and  because 
negroes  are  equal  men  —  thus  revealing  a  faith  in 
that  "solidarity"  which  Anglo-Saxons  know  can 
come  only  through  the  mongrelizing  of  their  race. 
This  is  the  reason  why  the  negro  looks  to  the  Presi 
dent  as  a  deliverer  and  the  people  of  the  South  turn 
from  him  as  one  recreant  and  irresponsive  to  the 
instincts  and  appeals  of  his  own  blood  and  race. 


ROOSEVELT  AND  THE  NEGRO       77 

Commenting  on  this,  the  Nashville  "Ameri 
can"  said:  — 

Mr.  Vertrees  has  admirably  given  expression  to 
the  Southern  sentiment  on  the  negro  question. 

It  was  suggested  at  the  time  that  Hanna 
never  affronted  Southern  sentiment  and  angered 
a  Republican  machine  in  the  South  by  naming 
educated  and  independent  negroes  for  office, 
and  that  what  inflamed  the  South  was  not  negro 
appointments,  but  high-class  negro  appoint 
ments. 

Roused  by  the  prevalence  of  lynching  in  the 
South,  the  President  wrote  a  letter  on  the  sub 
ject  to  Governor  Durbin,  of  Indiana,  upon 
which  the  "Nation"  made  the  following  com 
ment: — 

President  Roosevelt  has  put  us  all  in  his  debt. 
From  his  letter  to  Governor  Durbin  there  might  well 
date  a  new  patriotic  and  civilizing  impulse,  leading 
honest  men  everywhere  to  unite,  in  word  and  deed, 
and  with  every  instrument  of  persuasion  and  of 
power,  to  put  down  those  lawless  bands  that  are  to 
day  our  greatest  national  danger  as  they  are  our 
deepest  disgrace. 

The  President  was  rebuked  by  a  Democratic 
Senator  for  having  precipitated  the  race  issue, 
and  was  reported  to  have  said  that  if  he  could 


78  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

be  sure  of  reelection  on  condition  of  turning  his 
back  on  the  principles  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  he 
would  be  incapable  of  making  the  bargain  and 
that  he  would  be  unfit  to  be  President  if  he 
could  think  of  doing  such  a  thing.  And  yet  he 
retained  some  friends  in  the  South.  Upon  the 
occasion  of  his  Southern  tour  in  1905,  the  Bir 
mingham  "Age  Herald"  said:  — 

The  man  whom  the  people  came  from  all  parts  of 
Alabama  to  honor  yesterday  is  emphatically  an 
American  who  stands  for  all  regardless  of  social  lines 
or  the  size  of  pocket-books.  A  man  of  heartier 
American  spirit  and  impulses  has  never  occupied  the 
presidential  chair.  He  is  an  American  from  the 
ground  up,  a  true  type  of  the  best  aspirations  of  the 
Republic;  the  first  citizen  of  this  glorious  land  of 
liberty. 

The  Southern  Democratic  newspapers  gen 
erally  expressed  a  change  of  attitude  toward 
him  and  said  that  he  was  more  popular  than 
any  of  his  Republican  predecessors. 

In  1906,  three  companies  of  colored  soldiers 
were  discharged  from  the  United  States  Army 
without  honor  because  of  the  shooting-up  by 
some  of  them  of  Brownsville,  Texas.  The  guilty 
men  could  not  be  individually  determined,  — • 
there  was  a  "conspiracy  of  silence"  among  their 


ROOSEVELT  AND  LABOR  79 

comrades  to  protect  them,  —  and  so  the  Presi 
dent  "discharged  all  and  said  of  his  action,  "If 
any  organization  of  troops,  white  or  black,  is 
guilty  of  similar  conduct  in  the  future,  I  shall 
follow  precisely  the  same  course."  This  incident 
aroused  a  great  deal  of  criticism  and  led  to  an 
investigation  and  prolonged  debate  in  the  Sen 
ate.  The  matter  was  finally  disposed  of  in 
1909.  A  commission  was  appointed  to  deter 
mine  what  members  of  the  battalion  were  eli 
gible  for  reenlistment. 

I  mention  these  incidents  to  demonstrate  that 
Roosevelt's  conduct  was  not  affected  by  any  feel 
ing  of  race  prejudice.  It  was  fair  play  and  justice 
which  the  President  was  striving  for.  In  one 
case  it  enraged  the  whites  of  the  South;  in  the 
other,  it  provoked  the  hostility  of  the  negroes 
North  and  South.  He  may  have  been  wrong  in 
one  or  in  both,  or  in  neither,  but  certainly  no 
one  can  fairly  question  the  honesty  of  his  pur 
pose. 

Roosevelt  and  Labor 

Roosevelt  always  showed  sympathetic  in 
terest  in  the  welfare  of  the  wage-earner,  but 
never  failed  to  condemn  the  excesses  of  labor 


80  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

unions.    In  his  first  message  to  Congress,  he 
said:  — 

Not  only  must  our  labor  be  protected  by  the  tariff, 
but  it  should  also  be  protected  so  far  as  it  is  possible 
from  the  presence  in  this  country  of  any  laborers 
brought  over  by  contract,  or  of  those  who,  coming 
freely,  yet  represent  a  standard  of  living  so  depressed 
that  they  can  undersell  our  men  in  the  labor  market 
and  drag  them  to  a  lower  level. 

The  most  vital  problem  with  which  this  country, 
and,  for  that  matter,  the  whole  civilized  world,  has  to 
deal,  is  the  problem  which  has  for  one  side  the  bet 
terment  of  social  conditions,  moral  and  physical,  in 
large  cities,  and  for  another  side  the  effort  to  deal 
with  that  tangle  of  far-reaching  questions  which  we 
group  together  when  we  speak  of  "labor." 

He  speaks  of  the  enforcement  of  the  eight- 
hour  law,  the  protection  of  women  and  children 
from  excessive  and  unreasonable  hours  for  work, 
under  unsanitary  conditions,  and  then  says:  — 

When  all  is  said  and  done,  the  rule  of  brotherhood 
remains  as  the  indispensable  prerequisite  to  success 
in  the  kind  of  national  life  for  which  we  strive.  Each 
man  must  work  for  himself,  and  unless  he  so  works 
no  outside  help  can  avail  him;  but  each  man  must 
remember  also  that  he  is  indeed  his  brother's  keeper, 
and  that  while  no  man  who  refuses  to  walk  can  be 
carried  with  advantage  to  himself  or  any  one  else, 
yet  that  each  at  times  stumbles  or  halts,  that  each 


ROOSEVELT  AND  LABOR  81 

at  times  needs  to  have  the  helping  hand  outstretched 
to  him.  To  be  permanently  effective,  aid  must  al 
ways  take  the  form  of  helping  a  man  to  help  himself; 
and  we  can  all  best  help  ourselves  by  joining  together 
in  the  work  that  is  of  common  interest  to  all. 

Subsequently,  he  said  in  another  message:  — 

In  the  vast  and  complicated  mechanism  of  our 
modern  civilized  life,  the  dominant  note  is  the  note 
of  industrialism,  and  the  relations  of  capital  and 
labor,  and  especially  of  organized  capital  and  organ 
ized  labor,  to  each  other  and  to  the  public  at  large, 
come  second  in  importance  only  to  the  intimate 
questions  of  family  life. 

He  recognized  organized  labor  as  a  necessity, 
but  insisted  that  it  must  not  seek  to  attain  its 
ends  by  improper  means,  and  said:  — 

There  is  no  objection  to  employees  of  the  Govern 
ment  forming  or  belonging  to  unions;  but  the  Govern 
ment  can  neither  discriminate  for  nor  discriminate 
against  non-union  men  who  are  in  its  employment. 

He  recognized  the  necessity  both  of  organ 
ized  capital  and  organized  labor  under  proper 
supervision:  — 

;  The  corporation  has  come  to  stay,  just  as  the 
trade  union  has  come  to  stay.  Each  can  do  and  has 
done  great  good.  Each  should  be  favored  as  long  as 
it  does  good,  but  each  should  be  sharply  checked 
where  it  acts  against  law  and  justice. 

He  believed  that  the  rule  of  contributory 


,82  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

negligence  should  be  abolished  and  that  the  loss 
in  industrial  accidents  should  fall  on  the  em 
ployer.  Is  it  not  reasonable  that  the  human 
machine,  in  its  relations  with  capital,  should  be 
placed  at  least  on  terms  of  equality  with  the  inani 
mate  machine  the  entire  cost  and  maintenance 
of  which  is  met  by  the  employer?  Theoretically, 
of  course,  no  one  will  dispute  that  a  man  should 
be  able  to  earn  enough  through  the  bread-win 
ning  period,  say  from  twenty  to  sixty,  to  carry 
him  through  life,  the  difficulty,  of  course,  being 
in  the  number  of  factors  —  illness,  bad  habits, 
unemployment  and  the  like  —  affecting  the 
efficiency  of  the  man  which  do  not  touch  the 
inanimate  machine.  In,  the  case  of  the  latter, 
the  prudent  owner  fixes  a  fair  period  of  life  for 
the  machine,  and  then  charges  off  enough  each 
year,  in  addition  to  the  cost  of  maintenance, 
to  pay  for  the  machine  within  the  period.  The 
same  rule  should,  as  far  as  feasible,  apply  to 
the  human  machine. 

Roosevelt  regarded  his  intervention  in  the 

coal  strike,  in  the  spring  of  1902,  as  his  most 

important   act   in   connection   with   the   labor 

question.     It  also  illustrated  his   theory  that 

_j&hen  action  is  necessary,  the  Executive  should 


ROOSEVELT  AND  LABOR  83 

do  everything  not  prohibited  by  law  which  he 
considers  for  the  public  welfare,  and  that  any 
doubt  should  be  resolved  in  favor  of  action. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  strike  began 
early  in  the  spring  of  1902  and  continued 
through  the  summer  and  early  autumn.  Winter 
was  approaching  and  a  coal  famine  was  immi 
nent.  The  mines  were  located  in  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  the  President  had  no  power 
to  act  directly  unless  requested  to  do  so  by  the 
state  authorities,  on  the  ground  that,  as  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  army,  he  must  intervene 
to  keep  order.  Meantime,  he  had  caused  the 
situation  to  be  thoroughly  investigated,  and 
after  somewhat  prolonged  negotiations,  secured 
an  agreement  between  the  miners  and  operators 
to  abide  by  the  decision  of  a  commission  of 
arbitration  which  the  President  appointed  — 
in  the  month  of  October  —  and  the  trouble  was 
over.  Had  this  method  of  settling  the  dispute 
not  been  agreed  to,  the  President  was  ready  to 
deal  with  the  matter  in  drastic  fashion.  He  has 
said  that  he  would  have  requested  the  Governor 
of  Pennsylvania  to  ask  him  to  keep  order,  and 
that  he  would  have  then  instructed  the  general 
in  command  to  protect  those  who  wanted  to 


84  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

work  from  the  strikers,  to  dispossess  the  opera 
tors,  and  run  the  mines  as  a  receiver. 

When  the  Employers'  Liability  Act  relating 
to  common  carriers  was  declared  unconstitu 
tional  by  the  Supreme  Court,  on  the  ground 
that  it  applied  to  intra-state  commerce,  the 
President,  in  his  special  message  of  March, 
1908,  suggested  that  it  be  reenacted  to  meet  the 
objections  of  the  court,  and  that  a  further  law 
be  enacted  to  provide  government  employees 
with  compensation  for  injury  or  death  incurred 
in  service.  He  also  urged  that  child  labor  should 
be  prohibited  throughout  the  nation  and  that 
a  model  child-labor  law  should  be  passed  for  the 
District  of  Columbia. 

He  recommended  that  in  injunctions  in  labor 
disputes  — 

No  temporary  restraining  order  should  be  issued 
by  any  court 'without  notice;  and  the  petition  for  a 
permanent  injunction  upon  which  such  temporary 
restraining  order  has  been  issued  should  be  heard  by 
the  court  issuing  the  same  within  a  reasonable  time 
—  say,  not  to  exceed  a  week  or  thereabouts  from  the 
date  when  the  order  was  issued  .  .  .  the  issue  should 
be  decided  by  another  judge  than  the  one  issuing 
the  injunction  except  where  the  contempt  is  commit 
ted  in  the  presence  of  the  court  or  in  other  case  of 
urgency. 


ROOSEVELT  AND  LABOR  85 

Elsewhere  he  expressed  condemnation  of  la 
bor  leaders  who  demand  that  in  a  labor  dispute 
no  injunction  should  issue  except  to  protect  a 
property  right  and  that  the  right  to  carry  on 
a  business  should  not  be  construed  as  a  prop 
erty  right;  that  in  a  labor  dispute  any  act  or 
agreement  between  two  or  more  persons  should 
be  legal  if  not  unlawful  when  done  by  a  single 
person,  thus  legalizing  blacklisting  and  boy 
cott,  and  that  there  should  be  a  trial  by  jury 
in  contempt  cases. 

The  President  summarized  his  views  as  fol 
lows  :  — 

The  right  of  employers  to  combine  and  contract 
with  one  another  and  with  their  employees  should  be 
explicitly  recognized;  and  so  should  the  right  of  the 
employees  to  combine  and  to  contract  with  one 
another  and  with  the  employers,  and  to  seek  peace 
ably  to  persuade  others  to  accept  their  views,  and  to 
strike  for  the  purpose  of  peaceably  obtaining  from 
employers  satisfactory  terms  for  their  labor.  Nothing 
should  be  done  to  legalize  either  a  blacklist  or  a  boy 
cott  that  would  be  illegal  at  common  law;  this  being 
the  type  of  boycott  defined  and  condemned  by  the 
Anthracite  Strike  Commission. 

The  President,  in  harmony  with  the  doctrine 
he  had  always  preached,  ordered  the  reinstate 
ment  (1903)  of  Miller,  who  had  been  expelled 


86  .THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

from  his  union  and  in  consequence  dismissed 
from  the  Government  Printing  Office.  In  ad 
dressing  a  note  to  several  departments  about 
union  and  non-union  men,  the  President  called 
attention  to  the  findings  of  the  Anthracite  Coal 
Strike  Commission,  "that  no  person  shall  be 
refused  employment  or  in  any  way  discrimi 
nated  against  on  account  of  membership  or  non- 
membership  in  any  labor  organization";  and 
declared  that  it  is  "mere  elementary  decency 
to  require  that  the  government  departments 
shall  be  handled  in  accordance  with  the  prin 
ciples  thus  clearly  and  fearlessly  enunciated." 

In  an  interview  with  Samuel  Gompers,  James 
Duncan,  John  Mitchell,  and  other  members  of 
the  Executive  Council  of  the  American  Federa 
tion  of  Labor,  in  regard  to  the  Miller  case,  the 
President  said:  — 

I  am  President  of  all  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  without  regard  to  creed,  color,  birthplace, 
occupation,  or  social  condition.  My  aim  is  to  do  equal 
and  exact  justice  as  among  them  all.  In  the  employ 
ment  and  dismissal  of  men  in  the  government  service, 
I  can  no  more  recognize  the  fact  that  a  man  does  not 
belong  to  a  union,  as  being  for  or  against  him,  than 
I  can  recognize  the  fact  that  he  is  a  Protestant  or 
a  Catholic,  or  a  Jew  or  a  Gentile,  as  being  for  or 
against  him. 


ROOSEVELT  AND  LABOR  87 

The  "Nation"  said,  "the  President  has 
shown  courage  and  statesmanship  in  refusing 
to  let  the  unions  hope  for  a  moment  that  the 
nation  will  aid  them  in  coercing  unwilling  work 
men  into  the  ranks  of  organized  labor." 

In  1903,  the  President  made  a  Labor  Day 
address  at  Syracuse  in  which  he  spoke  of  the 
community  of  interests  among  all  Americans, 
and  said:  — 

We  can  keep  our  Government  on  a  sane  and  health 
ful  basis,  we  can  make  and  keep  our  social  system 
what  it  should  be,  only  on  condition  of  judging  each 
man,  not  as  a  member  of  a  class,  but  on  his  worth 
as  a  man.  .  .  . 

The  line  of  cleavage  between  good  and  bad  citizen 
ship  lies,  not  between  the  man  of  wealth  who  acts 
squarely  by  his  fellows  and  the  man  who  seeks  each 
day's  wage  by  that  day's  work,  wronging  no  one  and 
doing  his  duty  by  his  neighbor;  nor  yet  does  this  line 
of  cleavage  divide  the  unscrupulous  wealthy  man 
who  exploits  others  in  his  own  interest  from  the  dema 
gogue,  or  from  the  sullen  and  envious  being  who 
wishes  to  attack  all  men  of  property,  whether  they 
do  well  or  ill.  On  the  contrary,  the  line  of  cleavage 
between  good  citizenship  and  bad  citizenship  sepa 
rates  the  rich  man  who  does  well  from  the  rich  man 
who  does  ill,  the  poor  man  of  good  conduct  from  the 
poor  man  of  bad  conduct.  This  line  of  cleavage 
lies  at  right  angles  to  any  such  arbitrary  line  of  divi 
sion  as  that  separating  one  class  from  another,  one 


88  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

locality  from  another,  or  men  with  a  certain  degree 
of  property  from  those  of  a  less  degree  of  property. 

And  on  another  occasion,  referring  to  the 
lawlessness  of  some  labor  leaders,  the  President 
said:  — 

I  urge  my  fellow  citizens,  the  American  men  and 
women  who  earn  their  livelihood  as  wage-workers, 
to  see  that  their  leaders  stand  for  honesty  and  obedi 
ence  to  law,  and  to  set  their  faces  like  flint  against 
any  effort  to  identify  the  cause  of  organized  labor, 
directly  or  indirectly,  with  any  movement  which  in 
any  shape  or  way  benefits  by  the  commission  of 
crimes  or  lawless  and  murderous  violence. 


—  I  think  I  have  said  enough  to  demonstrate 
that  Roosevelt's  attitude  toward  labor  was  per 
fectly  fair,  and  that,  while  recognizing  fully  its 
right  to  organize,  and  while  active  in  his  sup 
port  of  legislation  to  remove  from  the  back  of 
labor  every  unnecessary  burden,  he  was  un 
sparing  in  his  denunciation  of  lawless  or  unfair 
practices. 


CHAPTER  III 

ROOSEVELT   AND    THE   MONROE   DOCTRINE 

His  Foreign  Policy.   The  Army  and  Navy 

I  DISCUSS  the  Monroe  Doctrine,  foreign 
policy,  and  the  army  and  navy  in  this  order 
for  the  reason  that  the  size  of  our  army  and 
navy  is  somewhat  dependent  upon  the  views 
held  both  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  and  of  our 
foreign  policy  generally. 

Roosevelt  defined  the  Monroe  Doctrine  as  a 
"declaration  that  there  must  be  no  territorial 
aggrandizement  by  any  non-American  power  at 
the  expense  of  any  American  power  on  American 
soil."  He  said:  — 

We  have  deliberately  made  our  own  certain  foreign 
policies  which  demand  the  possession  of  a  first-class 
navy. 

The  Monroe  Doctrine  should  be  treated  as  the 
cardinal  feature  of  American  foreign  policy;  but  it 
would  be  worse  than  idle  to  assert  it  unless  we  in 
tended  to  back  it  up,  and  it  can  be  backed  up  only 
by  a  thoroughly  good  navy. 

As  to  which  the  London  "Spectator"  said:  — 
If  the  Monroe  Doctrine  is  not  to  be  consigned  to 


90  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  waste-paper  basket,  it  must  rest  in  the  last  re 
source  upon  the  naval  and  military  power;  and  if 
America  has  not  a  fleet  strong  enough  to  say  "Thus 
far,  and  no  farther"  to  those  who  shall  challenge  the 
doctrine,  that  doctrine  in  the  future  will  not  prove 
worth  the  paper  on  which  the  Presidential  Message 
of  1823  was  written. 

Commenting  further  upon  the  Monroe  Doc 
trine  and  our  duty  to  our  sister  American  re 
publics,  Roosevelt  said,  in  substance,  in  his 
message  of  December,  1905,  that  under  no  cir 
cumstances  would  the  United  States  use  the 
Monroe  Doctrine  as  a  cloak  for  territorial  ag 
gression,  nor  should  it  be  used  by  any  nation 
on  this  continent  as  a  shield  to  protect  it  from 
the  consequences  of  its  own  misdeeds  against 
foreign  nations,  but  that  the  punishment  by 
the  foreign  nation  must  not  take  the  form  of 
territorial  occupation;  that  it  would  be  inad 
visable  to  permit  a  foreign  government  to  take 
possession,  even  temporarily,  of  the  custom 
houses  of  an  American  republic,  and  hence  we 
might  have  to  intervene  to  bring  about  some 
arrangement  under  which  the  obligation  should 
be  met;  that  this  would  be  the  only  possible 
way  to  insure  us  against  a  clash  with  some  for 
eign  power;  and  that  this  position  is  in  the 


FOREIGN  POLICY  91 

interest  of  peace  as  well  as  in  the  interest  of 
justice.  He  adds:  — 

.  This  brings  me  to  what  should  be  one  of  the  funda 
mental  objects  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine.  We  must 
ourselves,  in  good  faith,  try  to  help  upward  toward 
peace  and  order  those  of  our  sister  republics  which 
need  such  help.  Just  as  there  has  been  a  gradual 
growth  of  the  ethical  element  in  the  relations  of  one 
individual  to  another,  so  we  are,  even  though  slowly, 
more  and  more  coming  to  recognize  the  duty  of  bear 
ing  one  another's  burdens,  not  only  as  among  indi 
viduals  but  also  as  among  nations. 

This  he  illustrates  by  reference  to  our  policy 
toward  San  Domingo,  when  a  foreign  nation 
was  about  to  seize  her  territory  as  security  for 
debts  incurred. 

The  President  elsewhere  described  the  ar 
rangement  as  follows :  — 

It  was  agreed  that  we  should  put  a  man  in  as  head 
of  the  custom-houses,  that  the  collection  of  customs 
should  be  entirely  under  the  management  of  that 
man,  and  that  no  one  should  be  allowed  to  interfere 
with  the  custom-houses.  Revolutions  could  go  on 
outside  them  without  interference  from  us;  but  the 
custom-houses  were  not  to  be  touched.  We  agreed 
to  turn  over  to  the  San  Domingo  Government  forty- 
five  per  cent  of  the  revenue,  keeping  fifty-five  per  cent 
as  a  fund  to  be  applied  to  a  settlement  with  the  cred 
itors.  The  creditors  also  acquiesced  in  what  we  had 
done,  t  and  we  started  the  new  arrangement.  ...  I 


92  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

was  actually  assailed,  right  and  left,  by  the  more 
extreme  members  of  the  peace  propaganda  in  the 
United  States  for  what  I  did  in  San  Domingo;  most 
of  the  other  professional  peace  advocates  took  no 
interest  in  the  matter,  or  were  tepidly  hostile;  how 
ever,  I  went  straight  ahead  and  did  the  job.  The 
ultra-peace  people  attacked  me  on  the  ground  that 
I  had  "declared  war"  against  San  Domingo,  the 
"war"  taking  the  shape  of  the  one  man  put  in  charge 
of  the  custom-house!  ...  I  disregarded  those  foolish 
people,  as  I  shall  always  disregard  sentimentalists 
of  that  type  when  they  are  guilty  of  folly.  At  the 
present  we  have  comparative  peace  and  prosperity 
in  the  island,  in  consequence  of  my  action,  and  of  my 
disregard  of  these  self-styled  advocates  of  peace. 

Our  acquisition  of  the  Philippines  imposed 
obligations  upon  our  Government  which  could 
not  be  discharged  without  the  army  and  navy, 
and  Roosevelt's  position  upon  this  subject  may 
properly  be  discussed  here.  From  the  first  he 
stood  with  the  great  majority  of  his  party  in 
favor  of  the  acquisition  of  those  islands,  and 
said  in  1899:  — 

Of  course  there  are  some  anti-expansionists  whose 
opposition  to  expansion  takes  the  form  of  opposition 
to  American  interests,  and  with  these  gentry  there  is 
no  use  dealing  at  all.  Whether  from  credulity,  from 
timidity,  or  from  sheer  lack  of  patriotism,  their  atti 
tude  during  the  war  was  as  profoundly  un-American 
as  was  that  of  the  "Copperheads"  in  1861.  Starting 


FOREIGN  POLICY  93 

from  the  position  of  desiring  to  avoid  war  even  when 
it  had  become  unavoidable  if  our  national  honor  was 
to  be  preserved,  they  readily  passed  into  a  frame  of 
mind  which  made  them  really  chagrined  at  every 
American  triumph,  while  they  showed  very  poorly 
concealed  satisfaction  over  every  American  short 
coming;  and  now  they  permit  their  hostility  to  the 
principle  of  expansion  to  lead  them  into  persistent 
effort  to  misrepresent  what  is  being  done  on  the 
Islands  and  parts  of  islands  which  we  have  actually 
conquered. 

He  always  asserted  that  we  occupied  the 
Islands  for  the  good  we  could  do  there,  and 
speaking  of  the  anti-imperialists  said:  "Those 
of  our  people  here  at  home  who  have  specially 
claimed  to  be  the  champions  of  the  Filipinos 
have  in  reality  been  their  worst  enemies."  And 
in  commenting  upon  their  desire  to  grant  self- 
government  to  Luzon  under  Aguinaldo,  he  said 
that  it  "would  be  like  granting  self-government 
to  an  Apache  Reservation  under  a  local  chief." 
He  always  said,  however,  that  when  the  peo 
ple  should  have  shown  their  capacity  for  real  ; 
freedom  by  their  power  of  self-government,  ; 
then  it  would  be  possible  to  decide  whether  they 
are  to  exist  independently,  but  that  he  could 
not  turn  loose  the  Islands  to  be  butchered. 

Roosevelt  here  speaks  of  the  band  of  anti-  I 


94      .       THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

imperialists  who  continuously  kept  up  their 
opposition  to  the  policy  of  the  Government 
toward  the  Philippines.  I  did  not  belong  to 
that  body,  but  I  was  strongly  opposed  to  the 
policy  of  our  Government  and  was  in  a  very 
small  and  ill-thought-of  minority  in  my  own 
party. 

There  will  never  be  recorded  a  more  sudden 
and  revolutionary  change  in  a  fundamental 
policy  of  a  great  nation  than  that  manifested 
in  our  acquirement  of  the  Philippine  Islands. 
For  over  a  hundred  years  we  had  adhered  closely 
to  our  continental  policy  of  keeping  aloof  from 
European  politics  and  the  entangling  alliances 
against  which  Washington  warned  us  in  his  Fare 
well  Address.  In  a  single  night  this  policy  was 
abandoned,  and  we  placed  our  foreign  relations 
at  the  mercy  of  the  fortunes  of  island  posses 
sions  on  the  other  side  of  the  globe,  inhabited  by 
people  with  whom  we  had  no  affiliations  of  race, 
language,  creed,  or  color,  and  toward  whom  we 
had  no  responsibilities  excepting  those  which 
we  chose  to  assume  or  forcibly  to  acquire.  This 
is  not  the  place  for  any  extended  discussion  of 
the  subject,  the  great  difficulties  of  which  I 
appreciate.  I  only  mention  it  here  as  having  a 


FOREIGN  POLICY  .       95 

bearing  upon  Roosevelt's  views  of  our  army  and 
navy. 

His  foreign  policy  was  based  upon  a  very  sim 
ple  rule,  which  was,  as  he  puts  it,  to  behave 
toward  other  nations  as  a  strong  and  self-re 
specting  man  should  behave  toward  the  other 
men  with  whom  he  is  brought  into  contact.  In 
other  words,  our  aim  is  disinterestedly  to  help 
other  nations  where  such  help  can  be  wisely 
given  without  the  appearance  of  meddling  with 
what  does  not  concern  us;  to  be  careful  to  act 
as  a  good  neighbor  and  'at  the  same  time  in 
good-natured  fashion  to  make  it  evident  that 
we  do  not  intend  to  be  imposed  upon.  Or,  as  he 
put  it  in  another  way,  "Speak  softly  and  carry 
a  big  stick." 

With  these  views  of  our  duties,  it  is  less  neces 
sary  to  say  that  Roosevelt  always  favored  pre 
paredness  for  war,  as  the  best  means,  however, 
for  securing  peace,  than  to  say  that  he  regarded 
war  as  something  to  be  avoided  if  possible  and 
honorable  peace  to  be  desired  above  all  things. 
On  one  occasion  he  said:  — 

.  .  .  Unjust  war  is  to  be  abhorred;  but  woe  to  the 
nation  that  does  not  make  ready  to  hold  its  own  in 
time  of  need  against  all  who  would  harm  it!  And  woe 


96  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

thrice  over  to  the  nation  in  which  the  average  man 
loses  the  fighting  edge,  loses  the  power  to  serve  as  a 
soldier  if  the  day  of  need  should  arise! 

And  on  another:  — 

A  wanton  or  useless  war,  or  a  war  of  mere  aggres 
sion,  is  to  be  condemned  as  a  peculiarly  atrocious 
crime  against  humanity.  As  the  world  is  now,  only 
that  nation  is  equipped  for  peace  that  knows  how  to 
fight  and  that  will  not  shirk  from  fighting  if  ever  the 
conditions  become  such  that  war  is  demanded  in  the 
name  of  the  highest  morality. 

He  was  continually  preaching  the  necessity 
for  cultivating  the  stern  virtues  always  needed 
when  a  crisis  comes  to  the  nation  or  the  indi 
vidual.  As  he  put  it:  — 

One  of  the  prime  dangers  of  civilization  has  always 
been  its  tendency  to  cause  the  loss  of  virile  fighting 
virtues,  of  the  fighting  edge.  When  men  get  too  com 
fortable  and  lead  too  luxurious  lives,  there  is  always 
danger  lest  the  softness  eat  like  an  acid  into  their 
manliness  of  fibre. 

That  there  was  need  for  such  preachment, 
I  think  no  thoughtful  person  will  deny.  This  is 
and  has  been  for  some  time  an  age  of  luxury  in 
America.  We  have  been  free  from  any  great 
catastrophe;  and,  as  a  nation,  have  been  largely 
engaged  in  getting  and  spending.  Until  the 
national  income  tax  was  imposed,  a  man  might 


FOREIGN  POLICY  97 

go  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave  without  realiz 
ing  that  he  had  any  relation  with  the  National 
Government,  much  less  that  he  owed  it  any  duty. 
The  national  taxes  were  for  the  most  part,  as 
they  affected  the  individual,  indirect.  There 
was  no  compulsory  military  service  and  our  citi 
zens  came  naturally  to  think  of  the  nation  as  a 
benevolent  institution  from  which  much  was  to 
be  expected  and  to  which  nothing  should  be 
given  of  treasure  or  service.  That  this  is  a  dan 
gerous  attitude  of  mind,  I  think  all  will  agree. 
Nor  were  the  conditions  surrounding  the  indi 
vidual  such  as  to  develop  the  sterner  virtues  in 
those  who  were  removed  from  the  privations  of 
poverty.  The  character  of  the  early  settler  was 
hardened  by  the  daily  struggle  with  nature  for 
a  livelihood  and  with  the  savages  to  preserve 
life.  This  may  have  developed  natures  which 
were  stern  and  forbidding,  but  it  bred  into  our 
people  some  great  qualities,  and  it  was  well  for 
Roosevelt  to  call  the  attention  of  his  country 
men  to  the  fact  that  if  we  are  to  hold  our  own, 
these  qualities  must  be  preserved:  well  that  in 
the  days  of  personal  indulgence  and  enervating 
influences  there  should  be  an  apostle  to  preach 
and  practice  the  doctrine  of  "  the  strenuous  life." 


98  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

/ 

Roosevelt's  desire  for  peace  was  not  confined 
to  words.  Baron  d'Estournelles  de  Constant, 
the  French  pacifist,  said:  — 

President  Roosevelt  has  already  given  four  striking 
lessons  to  Europe  —  first,  in  having  brought  before 
the  Arbitration  Tribunal  at  The  Hague  the  question 
between  Mexico  and  the  United  States  over  the 
Pious  Fund  claims,  while  Europe  was  scoffing  at  the 
peace  court  which  it  had  created;  second,  in  obliging 
Europe  to  settle  pacifically  the  Venezuelan  affair; 
third,  in  proposing  a  second  Peace  Conference  at 
The  Hague  to  complete  the  work  of  the  first;  and, 
fourth,  in  now  intervening  to  put  an  end  to  the  heca 
tombs  in  the  Far  East. 

Of  the  negotiations  undertaken  by  Roose 
velt  to  bring  about  peace  between  Russia  and 
Japan,  the  London  "Times"  said,  in  August, 
1905:  — 

Whatever  may  be  the  outcome  of  the  negotiations, 
civilized  mankind  will  not  forget  or  undervalue  the 
part  Mr.  Roosevelt  has  played  in  bringing  them 
about.  The  issue  rests  in  other  hands  than  his,  but 
the  efforts  he  has  made  in  the  cause  of  peace,  whether 
followed  by  success  or  failure,  have  won  for  him  the 
gratitude  of  the  world.  He  has  done  his  duty  as 
peacemaker  faithfully  and  with  a  single  mind. 

Because  of  these  services,  Roosevelt  received 
the  Nobel  Prize  of  about  $40,000,  which  he  gave 
in  support  of  a  plan  to  establish  at  Washington, 


FOREIGN  POLICY  99 

a  permanent  industrial  peace  committee  —  a 
plan  which  it  has  not  been  found  practicable 
to  carry  out. 

Roosevelt  was  not  opposed  to  disarmament  so 
far  as  it  was  a  safe  thing  to  do;  but  he  said  on 
one  occasion:  — 

Nothing  would  more  promote  iniquity,  nothing 
would  further  defer  the  reign  upon  earth  of  peace  and 
righteousness  than  for  the  free  and  enlightened 
peoples  which,  though  with  much  stumbling  and 
many  shortcomings,  nevertheless  strive  toward  jus 
tice,  deliberately  to  render  themselves  powerless 
while  leaving  every  despotism  and  barbarism  armed 
and  able  to  work  their  wicked  will. 


Roosevelt  has  been  criticized  for  his  opposi 
tion  to  some  of  the  so-called  "Arbitration  Trea 
ties,"  but  his  reasons  seem  sound:  — 

We,  the  people  of  the  United  States,  cannot  and 
will  not  surrender  to  outsiders  the  power  to  deter 
mine  whether  or  not  we  are  fit  to  decide  for  ourselves 
what  are  our  vital  needs,  and  what  are  the  policies 
proper  for  meeting  these  needs.  In  other  words, 
Uncle  Sam  does  not  intend  to  wrong  any  one,  but 
neither  does  he  intend  to  bind  himself,  if  his  pocket  is 
picked,  his  house  burglarized,  or  his  face  slapped,  to 
"arbitrate"  with  the  wrong-doer;  and  as  long  as  he 
does  not  intend  so  to  bind  himself,  it  would  be  offen 
sive  hypocrisy  for  him  to  say  that  he  will  so  bind 
himself. 


ioo  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

He  was  not  disposed  to  rest  in  any  position 
of  false  security  or  to  make  or  permit  to  be 
made  promises  that  could  not  be  kept.  His 
course  may  not  have  been  satisfactory  to  those 
who  prefer  to  see  things  as  they  would  have 
them  and  not  as  they  are,  but  it  was  honest. 
He  was  continually  commenting  upon  the  na 
tional  short-sightedness  in  failing  to  provide  for 
the  efficiency  of  the  army  in  times  of  peace  and 
had  little  patience  with  those  who  feared  that 
this  would  tend  to  militarism.  He  said :  — 

Declamation  against  militarism  has  no  more  seri 
ous  place  than  declamation  against  Baal  or  Astaroth. 

The  only  way  to  have  men  ready  in  time  of  war, 
is  to  teach  them  in  time  of  peace. 

He  believed  in  teaching  men  and  boys  to 
shoot  straight.  He  said:  — 

We  should  establish  shooting-galleries  in  all  the 
large  public  and  military  schools;  should  maintain 
national  target  ranges  in  different  parts  of  the  coun 
try  and  should  in  every  way  encourage  the  formation 
of  rifle  clubs  throughout  all  parts  of  the  land.  The 
little  Republic  of  Switzerland  offers  us  an  excellent 
example  in  all  matters  connected  with  building  up  an 
efficient  citizen  soldiery. 

The  training  of  our  young  men  in  field  maneuvers 
and  in  marksmanship,  as  is  done  in  Switzerland,  and 
to  a  slightly  less  extent  in  Australia,  would  be  of 


FOREIGN  POLICY  loi 

immense  advantage  to  the  physique  and  morale  of 
our  whole  population.  It  would  not  represent  any 
withdrawal  of  our  population  from  civil  pursuits, 
such  as  occurs  among  the  great  military  states  of  the 
European  Continent. 

*  TBBPB^H^ 

Roosevelt  was  always  impatient  of  humbug 
and  "hifalutiny  particularly  in  connection  with 
practical  matters.  For  instance,  when  recently 
some  Senator  said  that  we  needed  no  regular 
army,  because  in  the  event  of  war  "ten  million 
freemen  would  spring  to  arms,  the  equals  of  any 
regular  soldiers  in  the  world,"  Roosevelt,  in  his 
whimsical  way  said:  — 

If  the  Senator's  ten  million  men  sprang  to  arms  at 
this  moment,  they  would  have  at  the  outside  some 
four  hundred  thousand  modern  rifles  to  which  to 
"  spring."  Perhaps  six  hundred  thousand  more  could 
"spring"  to  squirrel  pieces  and  fairly  good  shotguns. 
The  remaining  nine  million  men  would  have  to 
"spring"  to  axes,  scythes,  hand-saws,  gimlets,  and 
similar  arms. 

He  was  always  particularly  interested  in  the 
navy.  He  had  written  a  book  about  it  from 
which  I  have  quoted,  had  been  Assistant  Secre 
tary,  and  had  much  technical  knowledge  of  the 
subject.  He  urged  that  the  upbuilding  of  the 
navy,  begun  in  1882,  be  continued,  and  that  a 
national  naval  reserve  be  established.  During 


102  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

his  Administration,  we  had  naval  maneuvers 
on  a  large  scale  for  the  first  time  in  our  history, 
with  constantly  increasing  attention  paid  to 
gunnery.  As  Roosevelt  tersely  put  the  fact, 
"In  battle  the  only  shots  that  count  are  the 
shots  that  hit." 

,    He  took  the  very  sensible  view  that  our  ships 
must  be  at  sea  in  order  that  the  men  and  equip 
ment  might  be  kept  at  the  highest  point  of  effi 
ciency. 
On  one  occasion  he  said:  — 

No  fighting  ship  of  the  first  class  should  ever  be 
laid  up  save  for  necessary  repairs;  and  her  crew  should 
be  kept  constantly  exercised  on  the  high  seas,  so  that 
she  may  stand  at  the  highest  point  of  perfection. 

No  one  can  fairly  dispute  the  soundness  of 
this  position.  One  might  say  that  we  should  have 
no  ships  and  make  an  argument,  but  no  one 
could  defend  the  position  that  we  should  have 
inefficient  ships. 

A  battleship  is  a  machine;  not  only  that, 
but  a  very  complicated  machine.  Every  one 
knows,  who  knows  anything  of  the  subject, 
that  a  machine  of  any  kind  to  be  kept  efficient 
must  be  run  and  run  constantly,  not  inter 
mittently.  A  machine  which  to  the  eye  of  the 


FOREIGN   POLICY  103 

novice  is  complete  is  very  far  from  being  so; 
it  is  not  completed  until  it  is  efficient,  and  that 
can  only  be  when  every  part  is  working  per 
fectly  under  the  guidance  of  experienced  and 
trained  human  intelligence.  This  requires  con 
stant  use.  A  ship  that  is  not  efficient  is  worse 
than  no  ship,  because  it  holds  out  the  promise 
of  offense  or  defense  that  cannot  be  kept,  just 
as  a  battery  that  can't  shoot  straight  might  just 
as  well  be  without  ammunition.  It  was  with 
this  end  in  view  —  to  keep  our  fleet  efficient  — 

that  it  was  sent  to  the  Pacific  and  then  around 

i 

the  world.  Both  events  were  sharply  criticized, 
but  both  were  abundantly  justified  by  those  who 
apply  the  rules  of  ordinary  common  sense  to  a 
practical  question.  The  fleet  reached  Hamp 
ton  Roads,  at  the  conclusion  of  its  42,ooo-mile 
cruise,  on  February  21,  1909.  Upon  this  occa 
sion  President  Roosevelt  made  the  following 
speech:  — 

Admiral  Sperry,  officers  and  men  of  the  battle 
fleet:  Over  a  year  has  passed  since  you  steamed  out 
of  this  harbor,  and  over  the  world's  rim,  and  this 
morning  the  hearts  of  all  who  saw  you  thrilled  with 
pride  as  the  hulls  of  the  mighty  warships  lifted  above 
the  horizon.  You  have  been  in  the  northern  and 
southern  hemispheres;  four  times  you  have  crossed 


104  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  line;  you  have  steamed  through  all  the  great 
oceans;  you  have  touched  the  coast  of  every  conti 
nent.  Ever  your  general  course  has  been  westward; 
and  now  you  come  back  to  the  port  from  which  you 
set  sail.  This  is  the  first  battle  fleet  that  has  ever 
circumnavigated  the  globe.  Those  who  perform  the 
feat  again  can  but  follow  in  your  footsteps. 

The  little  torpedo  flotilla  went  with  you  around 
South  America,  through  the  Straits  of  Magellan,  to 
our  own  Pacific  Coast.  The  armored  cruiser  squadron 
met  you  and  left  you  again  when  you  were  halfway 
round  the  world.  You  have  falsified  every  prediction 
of  the  prophets  of  failure.  In  all  your  long  cruise  not 
an  accident  worthy  of  mention  has  happened  to  a 
single  battleship,  nor  yet  to  the  cruisers  or  torpedo 
boats.  You  left  this  coast  in  a  high  state  of  battle 
efficiency,  and  you  returned  with  your  efficiency  in 
creased,  better  prepared  than  when  you  left,  not  only 
in  personnel,  but  even  in  material. 

During  your  world  cruise  you  have  taken  your 
regular  gunnery  practice,  and  skilled  though  you 
were  before  with  the  guns,  you  have  grown  more 
skillful  still  and  through  practice  you  have  improved 
in  battle  tactics,  though  here  there  is  more  room  for 
improvement  than  in  your  gunnery.  Incidentally,  I 
suppose,  I  need  hardly  say  that  one  measure  of  your 
fitness  must  be  your  clear  recognition  of  the  need 
always  steadily  to  strive  to  render  yourselves  more 
fit;  if  you  ever  grow  to  think  that  you  are  fit  enough, 
you  can  make  up  your  minds  that  from  that  moment 
you  will  begin  to  go  backward. 

As  a  war  machine,  the  fleet  comes  back  in  better 
shape  than  it  went  out.  In  addition,  you,  the  officers 


FOREIGN  POLICY  105 

and  men  of  this  formidable  fighting  force,  have  shown 
yourselves  the  best  of  all  possible  ambassadors  and 
heralds  of  peace.  Wherever  you  have  landed  you 
have  borne  yourselves  so  as  to  make  us  at  home 
proud  of  being  your  countrymen.  You  have  shown 
that  the  best  type  of  fighting  men  of  the  sea  knows 
how  to  appear  to  the  utmost  possible  advantage  when 
his  business  is  to  behave  himself  on  shore  and  to  make 
a  good  impression  in  a  foreign  land. 

When  I  left  the  Presidency  [said  Roosevelt],  there 
was  not  a  cloud  on  the  horizon  —  and  one  of  the 
reasons  why  there  was  not  a  cloud  on  the  horizon 
was  that  the  American  battle  fleet  had  just  returned 
from  its  sixteen  months'  trip  around  the  world,  a 
trip  such  as  no  other  battle  fleet  of  any  power  had 
ever  taken,  which  it  had  not  been  supposed  could  be 
taken,  and  which  exercised  a  greater  influence  for 
peace  than  all  the  peace  congresses  of  the  last  fifty 
years.  With  Lowell  I  most  emphatically  believe  that 
peace  is  not  a  gift  that  tarries  long  in  the  hands  of 
cowards;  and  the  fool  and  the  weakling  are  no  im 
provement  on  the  coward. 

In  his  special  message  of  April  14, 1908,  Roose 
velt  again  urged  upon  Congress  the  need  of  pro 
viding  four  battleships  of  the  best  and  most 
advanced  type  —  action  which  was  recom 
mended  by  the  General  Board  and  by  the  Secre 
tary  of  the  Navy.  In  this  message  Roosevelt 
said:  — 


io6  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

.  .  .  Prior  to  the  recent  Hague  Conference  it  had 
been  my  hope  that  an  agreement  could  be  reached 
between  the  different  nations  to  limit  the  increase  of 
naval  armaments,  and  especially  to  limit  the  size  of 
warships.  Under  these  circumstances  I  felt  that  the 
construction  of  one  battleship  a  year  would  keep  our 
navy  up  to  its  then  positive  and  relative  strength. 
But  actual  experience  showed  not  merely  that  it  was 
impossible  to  obtain  such  an  agreement  for  the  limi 
tation  of  armaments  among  the  various  leading 
powers,  but  that  there  was  no  likelihood  whatever  of 
obtaining  it  in  the  future  within  any  reasonable  time. 
Coincidentally  with  this  discovery  occurred  a  radi 
cal  change  in  the  building  of  battleships  among  the 
great  military  nations  —  a  change  in  accordance 
with  which  the  most  modern  battleships  have  been  or 
are  being  constructed,  of  a  size  and  armament  which 
doubles,  or  more  probably  trebles,  their  effectiveness. 
Every  other  great  naval  nation  has  or  is  building  a 
number  of  ships  of  this  kind;  we  have  provided  for 
but  two,  and  therefore  the  balance  of  power  is  now 
inclining  against  us.  Under  these  conditions,  to  pro 
vide  for  but  one  or  two  battleships  a  year  is  to  pro 
vide  that  this  nation,  instead  of  advancing,  shall  go 
backward  in  naval  rank  and  relative  power  among 
the  great  nations.  Such  a  course  would  be  unwise  for 
us  if  we  fronted  merely  on  one  ocean,  and  it  is  doubly 
unwise  when  we  front  on  two  oceans.  ...  I  earnestly 
advise  that  the  Congress  now  provide  four  battle 
ships  of  the  most  advanced  type.  I  cannot  too  em 
phatically  say  that  this  is  a  measure  of  peace  and  not 
of  war.  I  can  conceive  of  no  circumstances  under 
which  this  Republic  would  enter  into  an  aggressive 


FOREIGN  POLICY  107 

war;  most  certainly,  under  no  circumstances  would 
it  enter  into  an  aggressive  war  to  extend  its  territory 
or  in  any  other  manner  seek  material  aggrandize 
ment.  I  advocate  that  the  United  States  build  a 
navy  commensurate  with  its  powers  and  its  needs, 
because  I  feel  that  such  a  navy  will  be  the  surest 
guaranty  and  safeguard  of  peace.  ...  It  is  idle  to 
assume,  and  from  the  standpoint  of  national  interest 
and  honor  it  is  mischievous  folly  for  any  statesman 
to  assume,  that  this  world  has  yet  reached  the  stage, 
or  has  come  within  measurable  distance  of  the  stage, 
when  a  proud  nation,  jealous  of  its  honor  and  con 
scious  of  its  great  mission  in  the  world,  can  be  con 
tent  to  rely  for  peace  upon  the  forbearance  of  other 
powers.  It  would  be  equally  foolish  to  rely  upon  each 
of  them  possessing  at  all  times  and  under  all  circum 
stances  and  provocations  an  altruistic  regard  for  the 
rights  of  others.  .  .  . 

...  To  any  public  man  who  knows  of  the  com 
plaints  continually  made  to  the  State  Department 
there  is  an  element  of  grim  tragedy  in  the  claim  that 
the  time  has  gone  by  when  weak  nations  or  peoples 
can  be  oppressed  by  those  that  are  stronger  without 
arousing  effective  protest  from  other  strong  interests. 
Events  still  fresh  in  the  mind  of  every  thinking  man 
show  that  neither  arbitration  nor  any  other  device 
can  as  yet  be  invoked  to  prevent  the  gravest  and 
most  terrible  wrong-doing  to  peoples  who  are  either 
few  in  numbers  or  who,  if  numerous,  have  lost  the 
first  and  most  important  of  national  virtues  —  the 
capacity  for  self-defense. 

When  a  nation  is  so  happily  situated  as  is  ours  — 
that  is,  when  it  has  no  reason  to  (ear  or  to  be  feared 


io8  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

by  its  land  neighbors  —  the  fleet  is  all  the  more  neces 
sary  for  the  preservation  of  peace.  Great  Britain  has 
been  saved  by  its  fleet  from  the  necessity  of  facing 
one  of  the  two  alternatives  —  of  submission  to  con 
quest  by  a  foreign  power  or  of  itself  becoming  a  great 
military  power.  The  United  States  can  hope  for  a 
permanent  career  of  peace  on  only  one  condition, 
and  that  is,  on  condition  of  building  and  maintaining 
a  first-class  navy;  and  the  step  to  be  taken  toward 
this  end  at  this  time  is  to  provide  for  the  building  of 
four  additional  battleships.  I  earnestly  wish  that  the 
Congress  would  pass  the  measures  for  which  I  have 
asked  for  strengthening  and  rendering  more  efficient 
the  army  as  well  as  the  navy;  all  of  these  measures  as 
affecting  every  branch  and  detail  of  both  services  are 
sorely  needed,  and  it  would  be  the  part  of  far-sighted 
wisdom  to  enact  them  all  into  laws,  but  the  most 
vital  and  immediate  need  is  that  of  the  four  battle 
ships. 

v 

I  cannot  recommend  to  your  notice  measures  for 
the  fulfillment  of  our  duties  to  the  rest  of  the  world 
without  again  pressing  upon  you  the  necessity  of 
placing  ourselves  in  a  condition  of  complete  defense 
and  of  exacting  from  them  the  fulfillment  of  their 
duties  toward  us.  The  United  States  ought  not  to 
indulge  a  persuasion  that,  contrary  to  the  order  of 
human  events,  they  will  forever  keep  at  a  distance 
those  painful  appeals  to  arms  with  which  the  history 
of  every  other  nation  abounds.  There  is  a  rank  due 
to  the  United  States  among  nations  which  will  be 
withheld,  if  not  absolutely  lost,  by  the  reputation  of 
weakness.  If  we  desire  to  avoid  insult,  we  must  be 


FOREIGN  POLICY  109 

able  to  repel  it;  if  we  desire  to  secure  peace,  one  of 
the  most  powerful  instruments  of  our  rising  pros 
perity,  it  must  be  known  that  we  are  at  all  times 
ready  for  war. 

This  recommendation  of  four  battleships  was 
not  adopted  by  Congress.  I  voted  to  sustain 
the  committee  which  favored  two,  and  the 
views  then  expressed  by  Roosevelt  excited  only 
languid  interest  among  the  people  of  the  coun 
try  —  excepting  where  they  aroused  sharp  con 
demnation.  As  one  paper  expressed  it,  "The 
sober  part  of  this  nation  is  not  inclined  to  the 
reckless  policy  of  building  enormous  fleets." 
But  be  it  observed,  the  arguments  used  by 
Roosevelt  in  1908  are  the  arguments  which  in 
1915  are  being  urged  from  every  platform  where 
" national  defense"  is  discussed  and  by  those 
who  have  been  very  recent  converts  to  the 
cause.  The  policy  now  advocated  by  Roosevelt 
is  what  it  has  always  been. 

Perhaps  the  time  is  at  hand  when  we  should 
diminish  the  zone  of  our  responsibilities.  To 
accomplish  this  would  make  necessary  our  relin- 
quishment  of  the  Philippines  and  the  restric 
tion  of  the  Monroe  Doctrine  to  an  area  essen 
tial  to  the  protection  of  our  own  territory.  We 


no  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

could  then  confine  our  efforts  to  an  army  and 
navy  best  adapted  for  purposes  of  defense  and 
feel  certain  that  we  were  undertaking  a  task 
we  might  expect  adequately  to  perform.  We 
might,  too,  then  feel  that  we  were  more  strictly 
following  in  the  pathway  marked  out  by  Wash 
ington  in  his  Farewell  Address;  which  is  read 
annually  in  both  Houses  of  Congress  for  our 
guidance. 

Roosevelt  always  showed  great  interest  in 
the  restoration  and  development  of  our  mer 
chant  marine,  so  essential  to  the  permanent 
prosperity  of  the  country. 

In  his  first  message  to  the  Fifty-seventh  Con 
gress,  in  1901,  the  President  called  attention  to 
the  condition  of  the  American  merchant  ma 
rine,  and  said  that  it  called  for  immediate  reme 
dial  action  to  the  end  that  it  might  be  restored 
to  the  ocean.  In  his  message  to  the  Fifty-eighth 
Congress,  at  the  second  session,  in  December, 
1903,  he  recommended  the  appointment  of  a 
commission  to  report  to  the  next  session  of 
Congress  "what  legislation  is  desirable  or  nec 
essary  for  the  development  of  the  American 
merchant  marine  and  American  commerce,  and 
incidentally  of  a  national  ocean  mail  service 


FOREIGN  POLICY  in 

of  adequate  auxiliary  naval  cruisers  and  naval 


reserves." 


In  his  message  at  the  opening  of  the  Fifty- 
ninth  Congress,  the  President  referred  to  the 
report  of  this  commission,  made  at  the  previous 
session,  and  expressed  the  hope  that  the  views 
therein  expressed  or  a  major  part  of  them  might 
be  enacted  into  law,  and  said :  — 

If  it  prove  impracticable  to  enact  a  law  for  the 
encouragement  of  shipping  generally,  then  at  least 
provision  should  be  made  for  better  communication 
with  South  America,  notably  for  fast  mail  lines  to 
the  chief  South  American  ports.  It  is  discreditable  to 
us  that  our  business  people,  for  lack  of  direct  com 
munication  in  the  shape  of  lines  of  steamers  with 
South  America,  should,  in  that  great  sister  continent, 
be  at  a  disadvantage  compared  to  the  business 
people  of  Europe. 

A  bill  passed  the  Senate,  and  then  the  House 
with  some  modifications.  It  then  went  back  to 
the  Senate  for  concurrence,  and  was  talked  to 
death  by  two  Democratic  Senators  whose  terms 
of  office  expired  with  that  Congress  on  March 
4,  1907. 

In  his  message  of  December,  1907,  the  Presi 
dent  referred  to  the  "unfortunate  failure  of  the 
shipping  bill  at  the  last  session  of  the  last  Con- 


1 1 2  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

gress,"  and  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  it 
"was  followed  by  the  taking  off  of  certain  Paci 
fic  steamships."  Later  in  this  message,  he  rec 
ommended  "the  extension  of  the  ocean  mail  act 
of  1891,"  upon  the  theory  "that  it  is  the  duty 
of  a  first-class  power,  so  far  as  practicable, 
to  carry  its  ocean  mails  under  its  own  flag; 
that  the  fast  ocean  steamships  and  their  crews, 
required  for  such  mail  service,  are  valuable  aux 
iliaries  to  the  sea  power  of  a  nation."  Legis 
lation  based  upon  this  recommendation  also 
failed  of  enactment. 

The  Tariff 

Speaking  of  his  study  of  political  economy  in 
college,  Roosevelt  said  in  his  autobiography: 
"As  regards  political  economy,  I  was,  of  course, 
while  in  college,  taught  the  laissez-faire  doctrines 
• —  one  of  them  being  free  trade  —  then  ac 
cepted  as  canonical."  He  was  one  of  the  origi 
nal  members  of  the  Finance  Club  at  Harvard, 
organized  when  we  were  students  to  promote  the 
discussion  of  financial  and  kindred  questions. 
He  took  courses  in  political  economy  under  the 
late  Professor  Charles  F.  Dunbar  and  Professor 
J.  Laurence  Laughlin,  now  of  Chicago  Univer- 


ROOSEVELT  AND  THE  TARIFF      113 

^ 
sity.    His  principal  textbooks  were  "Principles 

of  Political  Economy,"  by  John  Stuart  Mill, 
and  "Some  Leading  Principles  of  Political 
Economy,"  by  J.  E.  Cairnes.  Like  most  col 
lege  graduates,  he  was  disposed  to  be  a  free 
trader.  As  he  has  never  engaged  in  any  busi 
ness  affected  by  the  tariff,  the  practical  consid 
erations  involved  in  the  subject  have  never  been 
brought  home  to  him. 

When  he  wrote  the  "Life  of  Benton,"  in  1886, 
he  said,  speaking  of  the  tariff:  — 

Free  traders  are  apt  to  look  at  the  tariff  from  a 
sentimental  standpoint;  but  it  is  in  reality  a  purely 
business  matter,  and  should  be  decided  solely  on 
grounds  of  expediency.  Political  economists  have 
pretty  generally  agreed  that  protection  is  vicious  in 
theory  and  harmful  in  practice;  but  if  the  majority 
of  the  people  in  interest  wish  it,  and  it  affects  only 
themselves,  there  is  no  earthly  reason  why  they 
should  not  be  allowed  to  try  the  experiment  to  their 
hearts'  content. 

,  \ 

His  position  on  this  question  when  he  was 

President  was  that  he  did  not  believe  that  the 
question  of  lowering  or  raising  the  duties  as 
proposed  by  the  two  parties,  in  any  way  ap 
proached  in  importance  the  trust  or  labor  prob 
lems,  so  called.  He  believed  that  those  who 


ii4  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

urged  upon  him, the  necessity  for  taking  up  the 
tariff  knew  that  the  tariff  would  be  a  red  herring 
across  the  path  of  moral  and  industrial  reform. 
He  believed  in  a  protective  tariff,  administered 
under  a  tariff  commission  like  that  in  Germany, 
a  plan  which  neither  party  would  support.  He 
believes  that  the  Taft  and  Woodrow  Wilson 
tariffs  both  did  damage  and  that  the  result 
demonstrates  that  he  was  right  in  thinking 
that  if  he  had  taken  up  the  tariff  no  good 
would  have  followed,  and  that  he  would  have 
played  into  the  hands  of  those  who  wished  the 
tariff  thrown  open  to  discussion  merely  to  avoid 
action  on  matters  which  he  regarded  as  of  in 
finitely  greater  importance. 

I  think  that  in  his  political  life  he  had  very 
little  interest  in  the  subject,  very  likely  because 
there  was  no  revision  of  the  tariff  while  he  was 
President,  which  was  perhaps  fortunate.  He 
accepted  the  party  position  and  stated  it  for 
cibly  in  his  various  messages.  Had  the  need 
arisen  I  do  not  doubt  that  he  would  have  dealt 
with  the  matter  with  his  customary  vigor  and 
intelligence,  and  he  would,  I  am  sure,  have  lis 
tened  patiently  to  the  great  variety  of  views  so 
tenaciously  held  on  this  most  perplexing  subject. 


ROOSEVELT  AND  THE  TARIFF      115 

We  have  not  had  a  President  in  recent  times 
who  so  generously  invited  opinions  from  every 
quarter  as  did  Roosevelt.  He  did  not  assume  in 
advance  that  he  knew  everything  about  a  sub 
ject  and  was  quick  to  admit  his  lack  of  knowl 
edge.  What  I  have  said  is  well  illustrated  by  the 
following  correspondence.  I  wrote  him  as  fol 
lows  :  — 

WORCESTER,  MASS., 
August  31,  1911. 

Itfear  that  we  are  in  for  a  very  discouraging  year  in 
politics;  the  evil  day  of  tariff  revision  is  merely  post 
poned,  and  I  fear  that  too  much  is  expected  of  the 
Tariff  Board.  It  sounds  well  to  talk  about  scientific 
revision  of  the  tariff,  but  it  is  an  idle  dream.  The 
difference  in  cost  of  production  varies  from  day  to 
day,  and  cannot  be  definitely  ascertained.  It  will 
vary  in  our  own  cotton  mills  from  time  to  time, 
sometimes  as  much  as  one  half  a  cent  a  yard,  or 
more,  depending  upon  the  variation  in  the  price  of 
cotton  due  to  natural  causes.  The  1908  tariff  plank 
was  most  unhappily  phrased,  and  the  guarantee  of  a 
reasonable  profit  was  almost  a  crime.  A  tariff  high 
enough  to  insure  the  home  market  to  the  home  pro 
ducer  at  reasonable  prices  is  as  near  as  we  can  ever 
get  to  an  enunciation  of  the  protective  policy,  and 
where  this  point  is  can  be  better  ascertained  by  study 
ing  our  imports  than  by  trying  to  ascertain  difference 
in  cost  of  production.  I  do  not  see  any  escape  from 
a  prolonged  and  perhaps  acrimonious  discussion  in  the 


ii6  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

next  session  of  Congress.  One  discouraging  condition 
is  the  utter  lack  of  candor  in  discussing  the  matter. 
We  hear  much  of  the  "Woolen  Trust,"  the  "Worsted 
Trust,"    "Cotton    Trust,"  —  all    creations    of    the 
imagination,  but  creative  of  much  unrest  with  the 
people.  The  people  do  not  seem  to  realize  that  what 
manufacturers  want  is  a  big  output  at  small  margins. 
A  man  who  wears  a  fifty-cent  shirt  would  not  com 
plain  if  he  knew  what  is  the  fact  —  that  the  manu 
facturer  of  the  cloth  is  happy  to  make  half  a  cent  on 
the  two  and  a  half  yards  it  takes  to  make  the  shirt. 
The  unhappy  man  who  wears  the  shirt  probably  has 
an  idea  that  the  "trust"  pockets  forty-nine  cents.  If 
the  Tariff  Board  performs  any  valuable  service,  it  will 
not  be  in  discovering  the  difference  in  cost  of  produc 
tion  between  here  and  "abroad,"  but  in  putting  before 
the  people  some  facts  in  regard  to  the  conditions 
under  which  our  staples  are  produced  which  will  con 
vince  the  public  that,  take  them  as  a  whole,  the  man 
ufacturers  are  not  making  unduly  large  profits,  and 
which  will  lead  our  people  to  see  that,  in  order  to 
insure  low  cost  of  production,  we  must  keep  for  our 
selves  the  home  market.   Otherwise  our  mills  will  run 
on  short  time,  our  people  will  be  idle,  and  our  cost  of 
production  will  be  high.    I  had  the  curiosity  last 
autumn  to  have  computed  the  difference  in  the  cost 
of  a  certain  kind  of  cotton  goods  running  the  mill 
twelve  months  in  the  year  and  running  it  nine  months, 
and  found  that  the  difference  would  be  about  three- 
tenths  of  a  cent  per  yard,  which  is  quite  a  good  profit. 
In  other  words,  if  the  Lancashire  spinners  send  goods 
enough  into  New  England  to  keep  our  mills  running 
three  fourths  of  the  time,  we  will  not  only  have  our 


ROOSEVELT  AND  THE  TARIFF      117 

streets  full  of  the  idle  and  suffering  poor,  but  the  cost 
of  the  goods  we  do  make  will  be  very  considerably 
increased.  I  am  not  deceived  at  all  by  the  popular 
delusion  touching  wages  here  and  abroad.  I  know 
very  well  that  the  most  efficient  labor  is  the  cheapest 
and  that  the  lowest  cost  of  production  is  sometimes 
accompanied  by  the  highest  rate  of  wages,  so  that  in 
some  lines  of  business,  —  for  example,  the  manufac 
ture  of  steel  rails,  —  no  tariff  at  all  is  needed  because 
of  the  labor  cost,  but  it  is  very  important  to  protect 
our  markets  against  the  importation  of  large  quanti 
ties  of  foreign  goods  when  the  foreign  demand  may 
be  small,  because  that  utterly  disarranges  the  run 
ning  of  our  own  mills  and  puts  them  on  short  time, 
which,  as  I  have  suggested  above,  not  only  means 
suffering  for  our  people,  but  high  cost  of  production. 
I  doubt  myself  the  wisdom  of  the  reciprocity  arrange 
ment  at  this  time  with  Canada,  and  for  the  reason 
that  politically  it  seems  to  me  a  very  unwise  thing  for 
a  Republican  President  to  force  through  a  proposition 
which  splits  his  own  party  in  two.  I  think  the  propo 
sition  is,  for  the  moment,  popular  with  the  people, 
but  I  fear  that  the  interests  affected  or  thought  to  be 
are  likely  to  resent  the  discrimination  which  has  been 
made,  manifested  in  a  willingness  to  legislate  upon 
them  before  any  investigation  by  the  Tariff  Board, 
when  other  interests  are  very  jealously  protected 
until  they  shall  have  been  investigated  by  the  Tariff 
Board.  I  earnestly  hope  that  the  party  will  not  suffer, 
but  profit  by  the  policy  which  has  been  pursued,  but 
I  have  my  doubts  about  it. 

To  which  Roosevelt  made  the  following  reply: 


n8  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

September  2d,  1911. 

That  is  a  most  interesting  letter  of  yours.  It  gave 
me  some  totally  new  ideas;  and  when  missionary 
work  is  needed  for  me,  it  must  be  needed  for  some 
other  people  too.  As  regards  Canadian  Reciprocity, 
the  trouble  is,  as  you  say,  that  to  push  it  through  at 
the  expense  of  the  farmers,  who  are  restive  about  the 
tariff  anyhow,  tends  to  make  them  ready  to  favor 
any  cut  at  the  expense  of  the  manufacturers.  - 

Upon  this  point  of  his  willingness  to  receive 
suggestions,  Secretary  Hay  wrote  in  his  Diary, 
November  20,  1904:  — 

,  I  read  the  President's  message  in  the  afternoon. 
.  .  .  Made  several  suggestions  as  to  changes  and 
omissions.  The  President  came  in  just  as  I  had  fin 
ished  and  we  went  over  the  matter  together.  He 
accepted  my  ideas  with  that  singular  amiability  and 
open-mindedness  which  form  so  striking  a  contrast 
with  the  general  idea  of  his  brusque  and  arbitrary 
character.  | 

In  his  message  of  December,  1907,  he  said 
that  the  country  was  committed  to  the  system 
of  protection,  but  that  every  dozen  years,  or 
so,  the  tariff  should  be  scrutinized  and  should 
compensate  for  the  difference  in  labor  cost;  a 
view  which,  as  I  have  said,  I  consider  rather 
superficial. 
*  Some  of  his  other  comments  on  the  tariff  will 


Copyright  by  E.  S.  Curti 
THEODORE    ROOSEVELT,    1904 


ROOSEVELT  AND  THE  TARIFF      119 

not  stand  the  test  of  analysis;  for  example,  he 
once  said:  "I  am  for  a  protective  tariff  that  gets 
past  the  mill  offices  down  into  the  pockets  of 
the  workingman."  Now,  the  only  way  that  the 
tariff  can  benefit  the  workingman  is  to  provide 
him  with  employment.  The  rate  of  wages  is 
determined  by  other  influences,  and  in  the  long 
run  must  be  substantially  the  market  rate  for 
labor  of  the  same  sort  in  the  same  locality.  To 
say,  as  Roosevelt  once  did,  —  "  If  the  wage  rate 
is  not  proper,  if  the  conditions  of  life  among 
laboring  people  are  not  proper,  then  we  recom 
mend  that  the  tariff  be  taken  off  entirely,"  — 
is  merely  another  way  of  saying  that  low  wages 
are  worse  than  lower  wages,  or  no  wages  at  all. 
I  do  not  know  of  any  great  protected  product 
in  the  manufacture  of  which  there  is  not  pres 
ent  the  element  of  competition.  Where  this  is 
true,  domestic  competition  insures  the  sale  of 
the  product  at  as  low  prices  as  are  possible 
under  conditions  prevailing  here.  Roosevelt 
distinctly  repudiated  the  erroneous  doctrine 
that  the  trusts  could  be  destroyed  by  removing 
the  tariff. 


120  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Conservation 

There  is  no  great  movement  championed 
by  Roosevelt  and  urged  by  him  upon  Congress 
and  the  nation  which  will  be  of  more  lasting 
benefit  to  his  countrymen  than  that  for  the 
conservation  of  our  national  resources,  which, 
up  to  almost  the  present  time,  have  been  used 
with  reckless  prodigality. 

Roosevelt's  interest  in  this  subject  was  roused 
when  he  was  Governor  of  New  York  and  had 
under  consideration  the  Adirondack  forests, 
in  connection  with  which  he  consulted  Gifford 
Pinchot.  In  January,  1900,  an  agreement  was 
made  between  New  York  State  and  the  Federal 
Government  by  which  the  latter  began  sys 
tematic  measurement  of  the  streams  of  the 
State. 

The  beginnings  of  the  conservation  move 
ment  are  recorded  in  a  book  on  the  "Arid 
Lands  of  the  West,"  written,  about  1880,  by 
Major  John  W.  Powell,  then  Director  of  the 
Geological  Survey.  Frederick  H.  Newell,  Direc 
tor  of  the  Reclamation  Service,  printed  the 
results  of  his  investigation  under  the  title  of 
"The  Public  Lands  and  their  Water  Supply," 


ROOSEVELT  AND  CONSERVATION    121 

in  the  i6th  Annual  Report  of  the  United  States 
Geological  Survey. 

.When  Roosevelt  became  President,  he  re 
quested  Newell  and  Pinchot  to  prepare  memo 
randa  for  his  use  in  writing  his  first  message  to 
the  Fifty-seventh  Congress. 
I  In  that  message  he  recommended  that  addi 
tions  be  made  to  the  forest  reserves  and  that 
their  protection  be  transferred  from  the  Gen 
eral  Land  Office  to  the  Bureau  of  Forestry.  The 
President  said: — • 

The  water-supply  itself  depends  upon  the  forest. 
In  the  arid  region  it  is  water,  not  land,  which  meas 
ures  production.  The  western  half  of  the  United 
States  would  sustain  a  population  greater  than  that 
of  our  whole  country  to-day  if  the  waters  that  now 
run  to  waste  were  saved  and  used  for  irrigation.  The 
forest  and  water  problems  are  perhaps  the  most 
vital  internal  questions  of  the  United  States. 

He  suggested  that  great  storage  works  were 
necessary  to  save  the  flood  waters  and  that 
irrigation  works  would  open  up  to  homestead 
settlement  great  areas  of  the  public  land.  He 
also  recommended  preserves  for  the  wild  forest 
creatures.  In  October,  1903,  Roosevelt  desig 
nated  Pinchot  and  Newell,  together  with  W.  A. 
Richards,  the  Land  Commissioner,  as  a  Public 


122  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Lands  Commission,  to  report  to  him.  This  was 
the  beginning  of  the  movement.  The  problem, 
as  Roosevelt  once  put  it,  was  one  "of  utilizing 
the  natural  resources  of  the  nation  in  a  way  that 
will  be  of  the  most  benefit  to  the  nation  as  a 
whole." 

The  subject  was  again  referred  to  in  the  mes 
sage  of  December,  1904;  and  in  that  of  1906,  the 
President  recommended  the  withdrawal  of  coal 
lands,  which  should  be  owned  by  the  Govern 
ment,  but  worked  by  private  individuals  under 
a  royalty  system;  and  elsewhere  he  favored  the 
preservation  of  the  forests  of  the  White  Moun 
tains  and  of  the  Southern  Appalachians,  a  pro 
ject  which  was  subsequently  undertaken  by  the 
Government.  In  his  message  of  December, 
1907,  he  favored  the  development  of  reclama 
tion  work  and  the  stopping  of  unlawful  fencing 
of  public  lands.  He  uttered  a  warning  that  the 
country  was  in  danger  of  a  timber  famine  and 
that  the  forests  should  be  conserved.  Again, 
in  January,  1908,  he  spoke  of  the  effort  to  secure 
equality  of  opportunity:  — 

In  the  interest  of  the  small  settlers  and  land 
owners,  and  against  the  embittered  opposition  of 
wealthy  owners  of  huge  wandering  flocks  of  sheep, 


ROOSEVELT  AND  CONSERVATION    123 

or  of  corporations  desiring  to  rob  the  people  of  coal 
and  timber,  we  strive  to  put  an  end  to  the  theft  of 
public  land  in  the  West. 

In  his  message  of  March,  1908,  he  repeats  a 
recommendation  for  the  development  of  our 
inland  waterways  and  the  appointment  of  a 
permanent  Waterways  Commission,  speaks  of 
the  conservation  of  our  natural  resources  as 
vital  for  the  future  of  the  nation,  and  states 
that  he  "will  veto  any  water-power  bill  not  pro 
viding  for  time  limit  and  for  the  right  of  the 
President  or  Secretary  concerned  to  fix  and 
collect  such  a  charge  as  he  may  find  just  and 
reasonable  in  each  case." 

In  December,  1908,  he  urges  short-time 
franchises  for  corporations  getting  power  from 
water  rights  and  recommends  national  as  well 
as  state  guardianship  of  mines  and  forests.  He 
insists  that  "we  should  leave  our  national  do 
main  to  our  children  increased  in  value  and  not 
worn  out,"  and  by  pictorial  illustrations  graph 
ically  shows  the  results  in  China  of  deforesta 
tion.  He  recommends  that  the  national  parks 
be  placed  under  the  control  of  the  Forest  Serv 
ice  of  the  Agricultural  Department. 

In  March,   1907,  he  added  sixteen  million 


124  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

acres  to  the  forest  reservations  just  before  he 
signed  an  act  of  Congress  forbidding  such  reser 
vations  hereafter  to  be  made  except  by  Con 
gress  itself.  Roosevelt's  explanation  of  this  in 
cident  is  somewhat  amusing.  In  speaking  of  the 
attacks  upon  the  Forest  Service,  he  said:  — 

While  the  Agricultural  Appropriation  Bill  was 
passing  through  the  Senate,  in  1907,  Senator  Fulton, 
of  Oregon,  secured  an  amendment  providing  that 
the  President  could  not  set  aside  any  additional 
national  forests  in  the  six  Northwestern  States.  This 
meant  retaining  some  sixteen  million  of  acres  to  be 
exploited  by  land-grabbers  and  by  the  representatives 
of  the  great  special  interests,  at  the  expense  of  the 
public  interest.  But  for  four  years  the  Forest  Service 
had  been  gathering  field  notes  as  to  what  forests 
ought  to  be  set  aside  in  these  States,  and  so  was  pre 
pared  to  act.  It  was  equally  undesirable  to  veto  the 
whole  Agricultural  Bill,  and  to  sign  it  with  this 
amendment  effective.  Accordingly,  a  plan  to  create 
the  necessary  national  forests  in  these  States  before 
the  Agricultural  Bill  could  be  passed  and  signed 
was  laid  before  me  by  Mr.  Pinchot.  I  approved  it. 
The  necessary  papers  were  immediately  prepared.  I 
signed  the  last  proclamation  a  couple  of  days  before, 
by  my  signature,  the  bill  became  law;  and  when  the 
friends  of  the  special  interests  in  the  Senate  got  their 
amendment  through  and  woke  up,  they  discovered 
that  sixteen  million  acres  of  timberland  had  been 
saved  for  the  people  by  putting  them  in  the  national 


ROOSEVELT  AND  CONSERVATION    125 

forests  before  the  land-grabbers  could  get  at  them. 
The  opponents  of  the  Forest  Service  turned  hand 
springs  in  their  wrath,  and  dire  were  their  threats 
against  the  Executive;  but  the  threats  could  not  be 
carried  out,  and  were  really  only  a  tribute  to  the 
efficiency  of  our  action. 

Roosevelt  vetoed  a  bill  authorizing  the  con 
struction  of  a  dam  across  the  James  River  in 
Missouri,  for  the  reason  that  it  gave  to  the 
grantee  a  valuable  privilege  which  by  its  very 
nature  is  monopolistic  and  does  not  contain  the 
conditions  essential  to  protect  the  public  in 
terest.  The  bill  was  similar  to  the  Rainy  River 
Dam  Bill  of  the  previous  spring,  April  13,  1908, 
vetoed  by  the  President,  which  ultimately  be 
came  a  law  because  the  company  then  agreed 
in  writing  to  submit  to  such  conditions  as  might 
be  imposed  by  the  Secretary  of  War,  including 
a  time  limit  and  a  reasonable  charge.  In  May, 
1908,  and  again  in  December,  1908,  there  was, 
at  the  request  of  the  President,  a  convention  in 
Washington  of  the  governors  of  the  different 
States  upon  the  subject  of  conservation,  which 
did  much  to  stimulate  national  interest  in  the 
subject.  This  suggested  a  North  American  Con 
servation  Conference,  and  in  January,  1909,  the 
President,  through  Gifford  Pinchot,  asked  Earl 


126  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Grey,  Governor-General  of  Canada,  Sir  Wilfrid 
Laurier,  and  President  Diaz  of  Mexico  to  send 
representatives  to  a  conference  on  the  conserva 
tion  of  the  natural  resources  of  North  America, 
to  be  held  in  Washington  in  February,  1909. 
This  meeting  suggested  a  conference  of  all  the 
nations  on  the  subject  of  "world  resources," 
and  an  invitation  was  sent  by  our  Secretary  of 
State  to  forty-five  nations  to  a  conference  to 
be  held  at  The  Hague.  The  project,  however, 
lapsed  with  the  Roosevelt  Administration. 

Some  doubt  was  expressed  as  to  the  right  of 
the  President  to  withdraw  public  lands  from 
location.  Touching  this  question  it  was  de 
cided,  by  the  Supreme  Court,  in  United  States 
vs.  The  Midwest  Oil  Company,  February  23, 
1915,  that  the  long-continued  practice,  the  ac 
quiescence  of  Congress,  as  well  as  the  decisions 
of  the  court,  all  show  that  the  President  had 
the  power. 

I  happened  to  pick  up,  some  time  ago,  an 
Arizona  paper.  My  eye  fell  on  the  following 
statement:  — 

Ten  years  ago  farm  land  in  the  Salt  River  Valley 
was  worth  from  thirty-five  to  a  hundred  dollars  per 
acre.  It  is  now  worth  from  seventy-five  to  five  hun 
dred  dollars.  . 


RELATIONS  WITH  CONGRESS       127 

What  effected  the  change? 

The  credit  should  be  given  to  the  Roosevelt  Reser 
voir.  .  .  .  The  Roosevelt  Reservoir  right  now  has 
more  water  in  it  than  it  ever  had  before,  giving  posi 
tive  insurance  of  crops  in  the  Salt  River  Valley  for 
years  to  come.  It  is  three  fourths  full,  and  will  be 
entirely  filled  before  the  snow  stops  melting  this 
spring. 

A  reservoir  in  the  desert  which  insures  con 
stant  and  increasing  benefit  to  mankind  is  a 
much  finer  memorial  than  the  great  pyramid  of 
Cheops,  likewise  in  the  desert,  but  serving  no 
useful  purpose  excepting  to  remind  us  of  an 
ancient  superstition. 

Relations  with  Congress 

I  shall  now  speak  briefly  of  Roosevelt's  rela 
tions  with  Congress.  His  first  message  was  en 
tirely  characteristic.  He  gave  adequate  consid 
eration  to  the  great  tragedy  that  made  him 
President,  but  he  was  from  the  outset  his  own 
master.  His  messages  were  always  addressed 
quite  as  much  to  the  people  as  to  Congress,  and 
in  time  it  came  to  be  generally  accepted  that 
whenever  he  thought  it  necessary  he  went  over 
the  heads  of  Congress  to  the  people. 
-  In  speaking  of  the  President's  power,  Mr. 


128  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Bryce  says,  in  the  "American  Commonwealth" 
(vol.  i,  p.  223):  — 

An  individual  man  has  some  great  advantages  in 
combating  an  assembly.  His  counsels  are  less  dis 
tracted.  His  secrets  are  better  kept.  He  may  sow 
discord  among  his  antagonists.  He  can  strike  a  more 
sudden  blow.  Julius  Caesar  was  more  than  a  match 
for  the  Senate,  Cromwell  for  the  Long  Parliament, 
even  Louis  Napoleon  for  the  French  Assembly  of 
1851.  Hence,  when  the  President  happens  to  be  a 
strong  man,  resolute,  prudent,  and  popular,  he  may 
well  hope  to  prevail  against  a  body  whom  he  may 
divide  by  the  dexterous  use  of  patronage,  may  weary 
out  by  inflexible  patience,  may  overawe  by  winning 
the  admiration  of  the  masses,  always  disposed  to 
rally  round  a  striking  personality. 

His  Administration,  speaking  now  of  his  serv 
ice  of  seven  and  a  half  years,  was  fruitful  of  legis 
lation  by  a  Republican  House  and  a  Republican 
Senate.  The  following  were  among  the  princi 
pal  acts  passed:  The  Elkins  Anti-Rebate  Law 
applying  to  railroads;  the  creation  of  the  De 
partment  of  Commerce  and  Labor  and  the  Bu 
reau  of  Corporations;  the  law  authorizing  the 
building  of  the  Panama  Canal;  the  Hepburn 
Bill  amending  and  vitalizing  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Act;  the  Pure-Food  and  Meat  In 
spection  laws;  the  law  creating  the  Bureau  of 


RELATIONS  WITH  CONGRESS       129 

Immigration;  the  Employer's  Liability  and 
Safety  Appliance  laws,  that  limited  the  working 
hours  of  employees;  the  law  making  the  Gov 
ernment  liable  for  injuries  to  its  employees; 
the  law  forbidding  child  labor  in  the  District 
of  Columbia;  the  reformation  of  the  Consular 
Service;  prohibition  of  campaign  contributions 
from  corporations;  the  Emergency  Currency 
Law,  which  also  provided  for  the  creation  of 
the  Monetary  Commission.  This  was  a  part  of 
the  legislative  accomplishment  of  these  years, 
stimulated  by  the  aggressiveness  of  the  Ex 
ecutive.  It  will  be  observed  that  most  of  these 
acts  are  to  insure  justice  of  treatment  between 
man  and  man,  to  protect  the  weak,  to  curb  the 
strong. 

The  passage  of  the  Hepburn  Bill,  amending 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Act,  was  attended 
by  more  or  less  friction.  The  President  at  first 
favored  giving  to  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  the  power  to  make  railroad  rates 
independent  of  review  by  the  courts.  This  was 
resisted  by  Congress,  and  finally  the  bill  passed, 
embodying  the  three  principles  laid  down  in 
the  President's  message  of  December,  1905: 
Power  in  some  administrative  body  to  decide 


130  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

whether  a  railway  rate  complained  of  is  reason 
able  and  just;  and,  if  not,  to  prescribe  a  maxi 
mum  rate,  the  decision  to  go  into  effect  within 
a  reasonable  time;  and  subject  to  review  by  the 
courts. 

The  Pure-Food  Law  was  the  result  of  the  re 
volting  conditions  shown  in  the  Chicago  stock 
yards  in  a  report  made  by  James  B.  Reynolds 
and  Labor  Commissioner  Charles  P.  Neill, 
which  the  President  sent  to  Congress  with  a  spe 
cial  message.  Considerable  friction  developed 
between  the  President  and  the  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Agriculture  before  this  bill  be 
came  a  law. 

It  has  been  said,  and  is  no  doubt  true,  that 
in  the  openness  and  the  directness  of  his  dealing 
with  Congress,  Roosevelt  surpassed  all  of  his 
predecessors,  and  that  no  President  ever  equaled 
him  in  the  amount  of  legislation  he  asked  of 
Congress. 

Entirely  characteristic  of  Roosevelt's  methods 
was  his  action  in  the  case  of  the  Tennessee  Coal 
and  Iron  Company.  The  Senate  passed  a  reso 
lution  calling  on  the  Attorney-General  to  state 
to  the  Senate  why  he  had  not  prosecuted  the 
Steel  Trust,  under  the  Anti-Trust  Law,  for  the 


RELATIONS  WITH  CONGRESS       131 

purchase  of  the  Tennessee  Coal  Company  in 
the  fall  of  1907.  The  President  instructed  the 
Attorney-General  not  to  answer  the  question, 
and  then  answered  the  question  himself.  He 
said  that  Mr.  Gary  and  Mr.  Frick  called  on 
him  in  November,  1907,  in  regard  to  the  mat 
ter,  and  asked  if  the  acquisition  of  the  Tennes 
see  Coal  Company  would  be  regarded  by  the 
President  as  a  violation  of  the  law.  "  They  as 
serted  that  they  did  not  wish  to  do  this  if  I 
stated  that  it  ought  not  to  be  done.  I  answered 
that,  while,  of  course,  I  could  not  advise  them 
to  take  the  action  proposed,  I  felt  it  no  public 
duty  of  mine  to  interpose  any  objection."  It 
appears  that  the  President  was  subsequently 
advised  in  writing  by  the  Attorney-General 
that  there  was  no  legal  ground  for  proceedings 
against  the  Steel  Corporation,  and  the  pur 
chase  of  the  Tennessee  Coal  Company  would 
constitute  no  ground  for  such  prosecution. 

Roosevelt's  action  was  abundantly  vindi 
cated  in  the  opinion  of  the  Court  in  the  case 
of  the  United  States  vs.  United  States  Steel 
Corporation,  decided  June  3,  1915,  in  the 
United  States  District  Court  for  the  District 
of  New  Jersey,  in  which,  referring  to  the  pur- 


132  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

chase  by  the  Steel  Corporation  of  the  Tennes 
see  Coal  and  Iron  Company,  the  court  said:  — 

We  shall  next  consider  the  purchase  by  the  Steel 
Company  of  the  Tennessee  Coal  and  Iron  Company, 
which  was  made  in  November,  1907.  On  the  one 
hand,  it  is  alleged  the  Tennessee  Company  was  a 
competitor  of  great  power  and  that  its  purchase  was 
for  the  purpose  of  suppressing  competition  and  effect 
ing  monopoly  and  restraint  of  trade.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  contended  that  the  competition  of  the 
Tennessee  Company  was  of  relatively  small  extent, 
that  its  purchase  was  practically  forced  upon  the 
Steel  Company  as  a  means  of  averting  a  threatening 
financial  crisis  during  the  panic  of  1907,  and  that 
such  purchase  neither  did  nor  tended  to  monopolize 
or  restrain  the  steel  and  iron  industry  of  the  United 
States.  .  .  . 

[We]  have  arrived  at  the  following  conclusions:  — 
At  the  time  the  Steel  Company  bought  the  Ten 
nessee  Company,  the  latter's  production  of  iron  and 
steel  was  1.7  per  cent  of  the  production  of  the  coun 
try;  that  up  to  that  time  the  Tennessee  Company 
had  not  been  a  business  success;  that  it  was  making 
rails,  which  was  its  principal  steel  product,  at  a  loss; 
that  its  ultimate  success  was  problematic;  that  such 
success  involved  an  outlay  of  upward  of  $25,000,000 
to  put  it  upon  a  dividend  basis;  that  it  had  never 
really  earned  any  dividends  up  to  the  time  of  its 
sale;  that  the  whole  testimony  shows  its  relation  as 
a  successful,  substantial  competitor  with  the  Steel 
Company  in  the  volume  of  its  business,  the  character 
of  its  product,  and  the  breadth  of  its  market  was  neg- 


RELATIONS  WITH  CONGRESS       133 

ligible.  We  are  warranted  by  this  testimony  and  find 
the  fact  to  be  that  its  purchase  by  the  Steel  Company 
in  no  way  tended  to  monopolize  the  steel  and  iron 
trade,  and  that  it  was  not  bought  with  the  purpose 
or  intent  of  monopolizing,  or  attempting  to  monopo 
lize,  or  restrain  that  trade.  Such  negative  conclu 
sions  and  findings  are  confirmed  by  the  affirmative 
proofs  showing  just  how  the  purchase  was  made, 
namely,  as  a  necessary  part  of  comprehensive  plans 
of  bankers  and  business  men,  sanctioned  by  Presi 
dent  Roosevelt,  to  check  the  panic  of  1907,  which 
was  then  at  its  height.  Without  entering  into  details, 
we  may  say  the  situation  was  summed  up  in  the  letter 
of  President  Roosevelt  to  Attorney-General  Bona 
parte,  as  follows :  — 

"  November  4,  1907. 

"Mr  DEAR  MR.  ATTORNEY-GENERAL:  — 

"Judge  E.  H.  Gary  and  Mr.  H.  C.  Frick  on  behalf 
of  the  Steel  Corporation  have  just  called  upon  me. 
They  state  that  there  is  a  certain  business  firm  (the 
name  of  which  I  have  not  been  told,  but  which  is  of 
real  importance  in  New  York  business  circles),  which 
will  undoubtedly  fail  this  week  if  help  is  not  given. 
Among  its  assets  are  a  majority  of  the  securities  of 
the  Tennessee  Coal  Company.  Application  has  been 
urgently  made  to  the  Steel  Corporation  to  purchase 
this  stock  as  the  only  means  of  avoiding  a  failure. 
Judge  Gary  and  Mr.  Frick  inform  me  that  as  a  mere 
business  transaction  they  do  not  care  to  purchase  the 
stock;  that  under  ordinary  circumstances  they  would 
not  consider  purchasing  the  stock,  because  but  little 
benefit  will  come  to  the  Steel  Corporation  from  the 
purchase;  that  they  are  aware  that  the  purchase  will 


134  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

be  used  as  a  handle  for  attack  upon  them  on  the 
ground  that  they  are  striving  to  secure  a  monopoly 
of  the  business  and  prevent  competition,  not  that 
this  would  represent  what  could  honestly  be  said, 
but  what  might  recklessly  and  untruthfully  be  said. 
They  further  inform  me  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
policy  of  the  company  has  been  to  decline  to  acquire 
more  than  sixty  per  cent  of  the  steel  properties,  and 
that  this  purpose  has  been  persevered  in  for  several 
years  past,  with  the  object  of  preventing  these  accu 
sations,  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  their  proportion  of 
steel  properties  has  slightly  decreased  so  that  it  is 
below  this  sixty  per  cent,  and  the  acquisition  of  the 
property  in  question  will  not  raise  it  above  sixty  per 
cent.  But  they  feel  that  it  is  immensely  to  their 
interest,  as  to  the  interest  of  every  responsible  busi 
ness  man,  to  try  to  prevent  a  panic  and  general  indus 
trial  smash-up  at  this  time,  and  that  they  are  willing 
to  go  into  this  transaction,  which  they  would  not 
otherwise  go  into,  because  it  seems  the  opinion  of 
those  best  fitted  to  express  judgment  in  New  York 
that  it  will  be  an  important  factor  in  preventing  a 
break  that  might  be  ruinous,  and  that  this  has  been 
urged  upon  them  by  the  combination  of  the  most 
responsible  bankers  in  New  York  who  are  now  thus 
engaged  in  endeavoring  to  save  the  situation.  But 
they  asserted  they  did  not  wish  to  do  this  if  I  stated 
that  it  ought  not  to  be  done.  I  answered  that  while, 
of  course,  I  could  not  advise  them  to  take  the  action 
proposed,  I  felt  it  no  public  duty  of  mine  to  interpose 
any  objection. 

"Sincerely,  yours, 

"THEODORE  ROOSEVELT." 


RELATIONS  WITH  CONGRESS        135 

When  called  by  the  Government  as  a  witness, 
President  Roosevelt  testified  as  to  this  letter  as 
follows :  — 

"I  was  dealing  with  a  panic  and  a  situation  where 
not  merely  twenty-four  hours,  but  one  hour  might 
cause  widespread  disaster  to  the  public.  .  .  . 

"I  ought  to  say  that  from  New  York  I  had  been 
told  by  banker  after  banker  that  the  Tennessee  Coal 
and  Iron  securities  were  valueless  as  securities  that 
counted  in  that  panic.  .  .  . 

"There  were  two  matters  to  which  my  attention 
was  especially  directed.  One  was  the  condition  of 
things  in  New  York,  the  relief  that  the  action  would 
bring,  not  merely  to  New  York,  but  throughout  the 
entire  country  —  just  as  much  in  Louisiana  and 
Minnesota  and  California  as  in  New  York.  That  was 
one  thing.  The  other  thing  to  which  my  attention 
was  particularly  directed  was  the  percentage  of 
holdings  the  Steel  Corporation  had,  and  had  had  and 
would  have  after  the  Tennessee  Coal  and  Iron  prop 
erties  were  acquired.  .  .  . 

"The  knowledge  that  I  had  was  that  the  Steel 
Corporation  had  some  years  previously  possessed 
nearly  sixty  per  cent  of  the  holdings  of  the  steel 
industry  in  the  country;  that  its  percentage  had 
shrunk  steadily;  that  the  addition  of  the  Tennessee 
Coal  and  Iron  Company,  which  was  something  in  the 
nature  of  four  per  cent,  —  somewhere  between  two 
and  four  per  cent,  I  have  forgotten  the  exact  amount, 
somewhere  around  there,  —  did  not  bring  up  the 
percentage  of  holdings  of  the  Steel  Corporation  to 
what  it  had  been  a  few  years  previously.  .  .  . 

"My  knowledge  was  simply  this,  that  it  was  a 


136  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

matter  of  general  opinion  among  experts  that  the 
Tennessee  Coal  and  Iron  people  had  a  property  which 
was  almost  worthless  in  their  hands,  nearly  worthless 
to  them,  nearly  worthless  to  the  communities  in 
which  it  was  situated,  and  entirely  worthless  to  any 
financial  institution  that  had  the  securities  the  min 
ute  that  any  panic  came,  and  that  the  only  way  to 
give  value  to  it  was  to  put  it  in  the  hands  of  people 
whose  possession  of  it  would  be  a  guaranty  that  there 
was  value  to  it.  ... 

"I  believed  at  the  time  that  the  facts  in  the  case 
were  as  represented  to  me  on  behalf  of  the  Steel 
Corporation,  and  my  further  knowledge  has  con 
vinced  me  that  this  was  true.  I  believed  at  the  time 
that  the  representatives  of  the  Steel  Corporation 
told  me  the  truth  as  to  the  change  that  would  be 
worked  in  the  percentage  of  the  business  which  the 
proposed  acquisition  would  give  the  Steel  Corpora 
tion;  and  further  inquiry  has  confirmed  to  me  that 
they  did  so.  I  was  not  misled.  The  representatives 
of  the  Steel  Corporation  told  me  the  truth  as  to  what 
the  effect  of  the  action  at  that  time  would  be,  and 
any  statement  that  I  was  misled,  or  that  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  Steel  Corporation  did  not  thus  tell 
me  the  truth  as  to  the  facts  of  the  case,  is  itself  not 
in  accordance  with  the  truth." 

An  examination  of  the  testimony  shows  that  the 
matter  was  as  stated  by  the  President  and  that  the 
Steel  Corporation's  chairman  absolutely  refused  to 
purchase  unless  the  matter  was  submitted  to  the 
government  authorities,  his  testimony  in  that  regard 
being:  — 

"While  the  President  of  the  United  States  could 


RELATIONS  WITH  CONGRESS        137 

not  say  that  we  might  purchase  this,  or  that  we 
should  not  purchase  this  property,  yet  I  believed, 
inasmuch  as  he  had  the  general  direction  of  the  law 
department  of  the  United  States,  certainly  we  ought 
to  know  what  would  be  the  attitude  of  the  Adminis 
tration  in  case  we  did  buy  this  property." 

The  Court  goes  on  to  say:  — 

Indeed,  as  to  this  purchase  as  well  as  the  others 
which  we  have  discussed  above,  sales  made  under 
different  circumstances  and  for  various  reasons,  we 
cannot  but  feel  in  the  light  of  proofs  that  they  were 
made  in  fair  business  course;  and  were,  to  use  the 
language  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  Standard  Oil 
case,  "The  honest  exertion  of  one's  right  to  contract 
for  his  own  benefit,  unaccompanied  by  a  wrongful 
motive  to  injure  others." 

Toward  the  end  of  his  term,  the  relations  be 
tween  Roosevelt  and  Congress  became  some 
what  strained.  This  was  due  to  a  variety  of 
causes.  The  President  was,  very  properly,  con 
stantly  pressing  an  elaborate  programme  of 
legislation.  Congress  could  never  meet  his  ex 
pectations  or  the  expectations  of  the  people, 
and  the  legislative  body  came  to  feel  that  its 
efforts  were  not  properly  appreciated  and  that 
the  Executive  held  a  place  in  the  confidence  of 
the  people  that  properly  belonged  to  Congress. 
The  President  prefered  pretty  direct  methods 


138  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

to  the  arts  of  diplomacy.  I  think  that  the  coun 
try  rather  enjoyed  his  controversies  with  Con 
gress,  and,  as  a  rule,  sided  with  him. 

Senator  Lodge,  in  his  admirable  address  upon 
"The  Constitution  and  its  Makers,"  in  speak 
ing  of  Congress,  said:  — 

Yet  whatever  praise  history  accords  to  the  Con 
gress  of  the  United  States  in  the  past,  the  Congress 
of  the  moment  and  the  members  of  that  body  in 
either  branch  receive  but  little  commendation  from 
their  contemporaries.  This  is  perhaps  not  unnatural 
and  it  certainly  has  always  been  customary.  .  .  .  The 
men  who  fight  by  land  and  sea,  rouse  immediate 
popular  enthusiasm,  but  a  body  of  men  engaged  in 
legislation  does  not  and  cannot  offer  the  fascination 
or  the  attraction  which  are  inseparable  from  the 
individual  man  who  stands  forth  alone  from  the 
crowd  in  any  great  work  of  life,  whether  of  war  or 
peace. 

It  was  early  suggested  to  the  President  that 
the  most  powerful  members  of  his  party  did 
not  like  his  ways  and  that  if  he  asserted  his  in 
dependence  he  would  get  no  favors  from  Con 
gress  and  no  renomination  by  the  party;  that 
he  had  trodden  on  "many  gouty,  Senatorial 
toes."  The  relations  were  so  "strained"  at  one 
time  that  a  resolution  was  in  preparation  requir 
ing  the  President  to  file  a  copy  of  every  execu- 


END  OF  HIS  TERM  139 

live  order  with  a  citation  of  the  law  following  it, 
and  also  for  the  creation  of  a  committee  of  dis 
tinguished  lawyers  to  report  on  the  President's 
acts  and  orders.  In  spite  of  all  the  criticism  of 
Roosevelt  by  the  party  managers  before  1904, 
he  was  reflected  by  such  a  majority  as  to  leave 
no  doubt  as  to  his  strength,  and  went  out  of 
office  with  his  great  popularity  with  the  people 
unimpaired. 

End  of  his  Term 

As  the  end  of  Roosevelt's  Administration  ^ 
approached,  his  friends  became  solicitous  as  to 
his  future.  He  was  a  comparatively  young  man, 
little  over  fifty,  possessed  of  unbounded  energy, 
and  by  inclination  and  habit  of  untiring  indus 
try.  In  what  direction  could  his  energies  be  best 
directed  to  secure  the  greatest  results  and  at  the 
same  time  not  impair  his  prestige  ?  The  first  year 
was  provided  for  by  the  African  trip;  but  after 
that,  what?  Three  months  before  the  end  of 
his  term,  I  called  at  the  White  House  to  talk 
with  him  about  a  matter  of  legislation.  It  was 
in  the  afternoon  of  December  9,  1908. 

After  I  had  finished  my  business,  Roosevelt 
asked  me  to  stay,  and  then  told  me  what  he 


140  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

was  going  to  do  when  he  left  the  White  House. 
He  said  that  he  had  received  a  number  of  of 
fers,  one  the  presidency  of  a  large  corporation 
with  a  salary  of  $100,000,  but  that  he  was  de 
termined  to  make  no  commercial  use  of  his 
name;  another  the  associate  editorship  of  the 
"J3utloo_k"  at  $12,000  salary,  which  he  had 
accepted  because  that  would  enable  him  to 
reach  the  people  he  wanted  to  reach.  As  I  was 
leaving,  I  said,  "Mr.  President,  I  want  to  say 
one  thing  to  you.  Never,  under  any  circum 
stances,  become  a  candidate  for  any  political 
office  —  unless,  perchance,  you  should  some 
time  be  called  back  here  —  because,  if  you  do, 
your  prestige  will  be  ruined,  and  it  is  the  great 
est  asset  the  American  people  possess."  As  I 
recall  it,  the  exact  expression  I  used  was,  "Do 
not  let  any  friend  persuade  or  any  enemy  coerce 
you  into  becoming  a  candidate  for  office."  "  Do 
you  mean  the  senatorship?"  said  he,  for  he  had 
been  considered  for  Platt's  place.  "I  had  not 
thought  of  that  at  present."  "  I  mean  any  po 
litical  office,"  said  I. 

I  remember  that  at  this  time  a  member  of 
Roosevelt's  family  asked  me  what  I  would  have 
him  do  after  he  left  the  Presidency.  I  replied 


END  OF  HIS  TERM  141 

that  I  thought  it  would  be  a  great  misfortune 
for  him  to  engage  in  any  kind  of  business  or 
have  anything  to  do  with  politics.  I  said  that 
after  he  returned  from  his  projected  African 
trip,  I  would  have  him  settle  at  Sagamore  Hill, 
and,  for  his  serious  occupation,  write  the  his 
tory  of  his  Administration.  Parts  of  it  could 
be  published  during  his  lifetime,  and  it  could 
be  published  as  an  entirety  after  his  death.  For 
his  bread-winning  occupation,  I  would  have  him 
write  for  the  magazines,  as  he  had  always  done. 
I  said  that  his  house  would  become  a  Mecca  for 
distinguished  men  from  all  over  the  world,  and 
that,  acting  in  an  advisory  capacity  and  with 
his  great  prestige,  he  would  continue  a  very  po 
tent  force  in  our  national  life.  I  further  suggested 
that  perhaps  he  might  deliver  four  addresses  a 
year  at  the  great  universities,  —  North,  South, 
East,  and  West,  —  and  thus  continue  to  be  a 
great  inspiration  for  young  American  manhood. 
I  do  not  assert  that  the  course  I  would  have 
had  him  follow  was  the  best  one,  or  possible  for 
him,  but  these  are  the  views  which  I  held  at  the 
time  and  which  I  expressed. 

The  period  covered  by  Roosevelt's  service  had 
been,  generally  speaking,  one  of  great  indus- 


142  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

trial  prosperity,  of  a  singularly  honest  and  effi 
cient  administration  of  the  Government,  and 
one  in  which  the  conscience  of  the  people  —  and 
here  was  Roosevelt's  most  conspicuous  accom-  , 
plishment  —  had  been  wonderfully  quickened. 
Several  years  ago  I  happened  to  be  sitting 
next  President  Eliot  at  a  public  dinner — Roose 
velt  was  then  President.  Mr.  Eliot  said  to  me 
that  a  certain  prominent  banker  had  told  him 
that  the  banking  fraternity  would  not  then  do 
things  which  they  would  have  done  two  years 
before  —  fine  testimony  to  the  changed  feeling  in 
commercial  circles;  it  was  a  feeling  very  differ 
ent  in  1907  from  that  which  prevailed  in  1897, 
and  one  which  has  continued  to  the  present 
time.  We  grew  better  in  that  decade;  we  were 
not  bad  at  the  beginning,  but  we  were  better 
at  the  end.  For  this  Roosevelt  was  largely 
responsible.  His  great  power  was  a  moral  power. 
As  to  his  popularity,  the  New  York  "Times" 
said,  in  an  editorial,  at  a  little  later  period: 
"They  who  dislike  Colonel  Roosevelt,  or  think 
they  do,  scarcely  count  in  the  census." 

The  Administration  of  Theodore  Roosevelt 
ended  on  March  4,  1909,  when  his  successor, 
William  H.  Taft,  was  inaugurated.  It  will  be 


END  OF  HIS  TERM  143 

remembered  that  Washington  was  swept  by  a 
blizzard  which  seriously  interfered  with  the  cere 
monies  of  the  day.  The  usual  preparations  had 
been  made  for  the  delivery  of  the  inaugural 
address  on  the  east  portico  of  the  Capitol.  The 
snow  forbade  and  at  the  last  moment  it  was 
decided  that  it  should  be  delivered  in  the  Sen 
ate  Chamber  where  all  of  the  dignitaries  as 
sembled.  In  accordance  with  custom,  Presi 
dent  Roosevelt  had  driven  from  the  White 
House  to  the  Capitol  with  his  successor,  but 
contrary  to  custom  he  did  not  return  with  him. 
Immediately  after  President  Taft  delivered  his 
address,  the  ex-President  left  the  Chamber  and 
went  directly  to  the  railway  station.  The  man, 
who  for  seven  years  had  been  the  most  prom 
inent  and  talked-about  person  in  the  world, 
became  a  private  citizen.  There  was  a  hush 
over  the  Chamber  as  he  left,  and  one  could  al 
most  hear  the  unexpressed  but  common  thought 
of  that  great  assemblage,  "He  has  gone."  ?  ' 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   AFRICAN   AND    EUROPEAN   TRIPS 

AFTER  a  few  days  spent  at  Oyster  Bay, 
Roosevelt,  on  March  23,  1909,  sailed  from 
New  York  for  Africa  in  charge  of  a  scientific  ex 
pedition  sent  out  by  the  Smithsonian  Institution 
to  collect  birds,  mammals,  reptiles,  and  plants, 
but  especially  specimens  of  big  game,  for  the 
National  Museum  at  Washington.  Speaking  of 
this  approaching  trip,  he  said  that  "nothing 
will  be  shot  unless  for  food  or  for  preservation 
as  a  specimen,  or  unless  the  animal  is  of  a  nox 
ious  kind.  There  will  be  no  wanton  destruc 
tion  whatever."  And  writing  at  a  later  time 
while  on  the  expedition,  he  wrote :  — 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  every  animal  I  have  shot,  with 
the  exception  of  six  or  eight  for  food,  has  been  care 
fully  preserved  for  the  National  Museum.  I  can  be 
condemned  only  if  the  existence  of  the  National 
Museum,  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History, 
and  all  similar  zoological  collections  are  to  be  con 
demned. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  speak  in  detail  of  this 
expedition.  I  may,  perhaps,  take  the  space  to 


THE  AFRICAN  TRIP  14$ 

say  that  the  achievements  are  recorded  in  a 
most  interesting  book  called  "African  Game 
Trails."  The  foreword  is  dated  Khartoum, 
March  15,  1910,  and  every  sentence  suggests 
Roosevelt's  love  for  nature  and  the  open.  These 
are  the  closing  lines :  — 

There  are  no  words  that  can  tell  the  hidden  spirit 
of  the  wilderness,  that  can  reveal  its  mystery,  its 
melancholy,  and  its  charm.  There  is  delight  in  the 
hardy  life  of  the  open,  in  long  rides,  rifle  in  hand,  in 
the  thrill  of  the  fight  with  dangerous  game.  Apart 
from  this,  yet  mingled  with  it,  is  the  strong  attrac 
tion  of  the  silent  places,  of  the  large  tropic  moons, 
and  the  splendor  of  the  new  stars;  where  the  wanderer 
sees  the  awful  glory  of  sunrise  and  sunset  in  the  wide 
waste  spaces  of  the  earth,  unworn  of  man,  and  changed 
only  by  the  slow  change  of  the  ages  through  time 
everlasting. 

In  these  lines  both  the  hunter  and  the  poet 
speak.  This  book  is  not  only  full  of  interest  to 
the  sportsman,  but  to  the  naturalist  as  well. 
At  the  end  is  a  list  of  game  shot  with  the  rifle 
by  Roosevelt  and  his  son  Kermit,  with  the 
following  note :  — 

Kermit  and  I  kept  about  a  dozen  trophies  for  our 
selves,  otherwise  we  shot  nothing  that  was  not  used 
either  as  a  museum  specimen  or  for  meat  —  usually 
for  both  purposes.  We  were  in  hunting  grounds 
practically  as  good  as  any  that  have  ever  existed; 


146  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

but  we  did  not  kill  a  tenth,  not  a  hundredth  part  of 
what  we  might  have  killed  had  we  been  willing.  The 
mere  size  of  the  bag  indicates  little  as  to  a  man's 
prowess  as  a  hunter,  and  almost  nothing  as  to  the 
interest  or  value  of  his  achievement. 

One  of  the  appendices  contains  a  list  of  ani 
mals  killed  and  of  the  species  to  which  they 
belong,  of  great  interest  and  value  to  the  sci 
entist.  Another  contains  an  elaborate  argu 
ment  by  Roosevelt  upon  "protective  colora 
tion"  in  which  he  takes  issue  with  some  of  the 
extreme  members  of  the  protective  coloration 
school.  Another  contains  the  original  list  of  the 
"Pigskin  Library." 

Speaking  of  his  books,  Roosevelt  says :  — 

'  Where  possible,  I  had  them  bound  in  pigskin. 
They  were  for  use,  not  ornament.  I  almost  always 
had  some  volume  with  me,  either  in  my  saddle- 
pocket  or  in  the  cartridge-bag  which  one  of  my  gun- 
bearers  carried  to  hold  odds  and  ends.  Often  my 
reading  would  be  done  while  resting  under  a  tree  at 
noon,  perhaps  beside  the  carcass  of  a  beast  I  had 
killed,  or  else  while  waiting  for  camp  to  be  pitched; 
and  in  either  case  it  might  be  impossible  to  get 
water  for  washing.  In  consequence  the  books  were 
stained  with  blood,  sweat,  gun-oil,  dust,  and  ashes; 
ordinary  bindings  either  vanished  or  became  loath 
some;  whereas  pigskin  merely  grew  to  look  as  a  well- 
used  saddle  looks. 


THE  AFRICAN  TRIP  147 

His  discussion  of  these  books  and  of  others, 
his  reasons  for  selecting  them,  and  his  com 
ments  upon  President  Eliot's  "five-foot  li 
brary"  are  full  of  interest  and  suggest  the  fact 
that  Roosevelt  had  always  been  a  most  omnivo 
rous  reader.  The  word  is  apt,  because  he  was 
literally  a  devourer  of  books.  This  book  of 
travel  alone,  with  its  notes  and  appendices, 
might  well  embody  the  full  measure  of  accom 
plishment  of  a  hunter  and  naturalist,  but  is 
merely  one  among  the  many  of  his  prodigious 
activities. 

It  was  just  the  sort  of  trip  which  would  at 
tract  him,  and  was  full  of  thrilling  incidents,  all 
of  which  appealed  to  some  craving  of  his.  He  ran 
the  whole  gamut  of  experiences  common  to  the 
hunter  and  explorer  who  never  spared  himself. 
Some  idea  of  the  variety  of  his  activities  may 
be  gained  from  the  following  programme  for  a 
single  day:  — 

Colonel  Roosevelt,  after  an  antelope  hunt  this 
morning,  called  upon  Mother  Paul,  the  American 
superior  of  the  convent  here,  visited  the  Catholic 
mission,  helped  to  dedicate  a  wing  recently  added 
to  the  Church  Mission  Society's  hospital,  and  took 
luncheon  with  Bishop  Hanlon.  This  afternoon  he 
received  the  King  of  Uganda,  and  with  him  attended 
a  dinner. 


148  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

The  expedition  ended  on  March  14,  1910, 
it  reached  Khartoum,  and  then  began 
that  extraordinary  journey  through  Europe 
during  which  Roosevelt  delivered  a  series  of 
addresses  which  attracted  world-wide  atten 
tion.  In  some  quarters  he  was  criticized  for 
his  blunt  comments  upon  political  conditions  in 
Egypt  which  were  called  "hasty,"  "impulsive," 
and  "unwise."  One  thing  is  certain,  they  were 
characteristic,  a  frank  expression  of  his  views. 
They  were,  however,  neither  "hasty"  nor  "im 
pulsive,"  because  they  had  been  considered 
with  the  greatest  care,  and  Roosevelt  once  told 
me  that  he  said  nothing  of  political  conditions 
which  had  not  been  submitted  in  advance  to 
those  men  of  the  country  whose  judgment  he 
considered  the  best. 

I  cannot  better  describe  the  conditions  un 
der  which  these  addresses  came  to  be  delivered 
than  to  quote  the  foreword  in  the  book  con 
taining  them:  — 

My  original  intention  had  been  to  return  to  the 
United  States  direct  from  Africa,  by  the  same  route 
I  took  when  going  out.  I  altered  this  intention  be 
cause  of  receiving  from  the  Chancellor  of  Oxford 
University,  Lord  Curzon,  an  invitation  to  deliver 
the  Romanes  Lecture  at  Oxford.  The  Romanes 


THE  AFRICAN  TRIP  149 

Foundation  had  always  greatly  interested  me,  and 
I  had  been  much  struck  by  the  general  character  of 
the  annual  addresses,  so  that  I  was  glad  to  accept. 
Immediately  afterwards,  I  received  and  accepted 
invitations  to  speak  at  the  Sorbonne  in  Paris,  and  at 
the  University  of  Berlin.  In  Berlin  and  at  Oxford, 
my  addresses  were  of  a  scholastic  character,  designed 
especially  for  the  learned  bodies  which  I  was  address 
ing,  and  for  men  who  shared  their  interests  in  scien 
tific  and  historical  matters.  In  Paris,  after  consult 
ing  with  the  French  Ambassador,  M.  Jusserand, 
through  whom  the  invitation  was  tendered,  I  decided 
to  speak  more  generally,  as  the  citizen  of  one  repub 
lic  addressing  the  citizens  of  another  republic. 

When,  for  these  reasons,  I  had  decided  to  stop  in 
Europe  on  my  way  home,  it,  of  course,  became  neces 
sary  that  I  should  speak  to  the  Nobel  Prize  Commit 
tee  in  Christiania,  in  acknowledgment  of  the  Com 
mittee's  award  of  the  peace  prize,  after  the  Peace  of 
Portsmouth  had  closed  the  war  between  Japan  and 
Russia. 

While  in  Africa,  I  became  greatly  interested  in  the 
work  of  the  government  officials  and  soldiers  who 
were  there  upholding  the  cause  of  civilization.  These 
men  appealed  to  me;  in  the  first  place,  because  they 
reminded  me  so  much  of  our  own  officials  and  soldiers 
who  have  reflected  such  credit  on  the  American  name 
in  the  Philippines,  in  Panama,  in  Cuba,  in  Porto 
Rico;  and  in  the  next  place,  because  I  was  really 
touched  by  the  way  in  which  they  turned  to  me, 
with  the  certainty  that  I  understood  and  believed  in 
their  work,  and  with  the  eagerly  expressed  hope  that 
when  I  got  the  chance  I  would  tell  the  people  at 


ISO  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

home  what  they  were  doing  and  would  urge  that 
they  be  supported  in  doing  it. 

In  my  Egyptian  address,  my  endeavor  was  to  hold 
up  the  hands  of  these  men,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
champion  the  cause  of  the  missionaries,  of  the  native 
Christians,  and  of  the  advanced  and  enlightened 
Mohammedans  in  Egypt.  To  do  this  it  was  neces 
sary  emphatically  to  discourage  the  anti-foreign 
movement,  led,  as  it  is,  by  a  band  of  reckless,  foolish, 
and  sometimes  murderous  agitators.  In  other  words, 
I  spoke  with  the  purpose  of  doing  good  to  Egypt, 
and  with  the  hope  of  deserving  well  of  the  Egyptian 
people  of  the  future,  unwilling  to  pursue  the  easy  line 
of  moral  culpability  which  is  implied  in  saying  pleas 
ant  things  of  that  noisy  portion  of  the  Egyptian 
people  of  to-day,  who,  if  they  could  have  their  way, 
would  irretrievably  and  utterly  ruin  Egypt's  future. 
In  the  Guildhall  Address,  I  carried  out  the  same  idea. 

I  made  a  number  of  other  addresses,  some  of  which 
—  those,  for  instance,  at  Budapest,  Amsterdam, 
Copenhagen,  Stockholm,  and  the  University  of 
Christiania  —  I  would  like  to  present  here;  but  un 
fortunately  they  were  made  without  preparation, 
and  were  not  taken  down  in  shorthand,  so  that,  with 
the  exception  of  the  address  made  at  the  dinner  in 
Christiania  and  the  address  at  the  Cambridge  Union, 
these  cannot  be  included. 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 
SAGAMORE  HILL, 
July  15,  1910. 

This  leads  me  to  say  a  few  words  about 
Roosevelt  as  a  speaker  and  a  writer. 


THE  EUROPEAN  TRIP  151 

As  I  have  said  he  was  not  in  his  youth  a 
ready  speaker.  He  was  halting  and  hesitating 
in  his  delivery.  In  the  early  days  no  one  would 
have  predicted  a  great  future  for  him  as  an 
"orator."  In  the  later  years,  while  he  has  had 
none  of  the  arts  of  the  orator,  the  subject-mat 
ter  of  his  addresses  has  been  so  interesting  and 
his  personality  so  compelling  that  he  has  be 
come  a  most  impressive  speaker.  He  has,  as 
every  one  knows,  been  a  most  voluminous 
writer,  and  I  was  surprised  when  he  said  to  me 
about  three  years  ago,  in  substance:  "Do  you 
know  I  am  not  a  very  ready  writer.  No  one 
knows  how  much  time  I  put  into  my  articles 
for  the  ' Outlook.'"  He  then  pulled  a  type 
written  manuscript  from  his  pocket  and  said, 
"Here  is  an  article  that  I  am  going  over,  as  I 
have  opportunity,  correcting  and  recasting  it," 
and  then  he  added,  "but  my  work  is  done  three 
months  ahead."  Here  is  one  great  secret  of 
his  ability  to  accomplish  so  much :  he  is  always 
doing  to-day  the  work  of  to-morrow,  of  next 
week,  or  of  next  year.  During  the  winter  of 
1909,  Roosevelt  was  at  work  on  the  addresses 
he  was  to  deliver  after  his  African  trip  and 
while  in  Europe. 


152  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

I  have  no  space  for  extended  comment  on 
these  addresses.  They  are  easily  accessible  and 
should  be  read  in  their  entirety.  The  first  was 
delivered  at  the  American  Mission  at  Khar 
toum  on  March  16,  1910;  the  second,  on  "Law 
and  Order  in  Egypt,"  before  the  National  Uni 
versity  in  Cairo,  March  28,  1910.  This  was 
delivered  under  rather  disturbed  conditions 
because  of  the  recent  assassination  of  Boutros 
Pasha  and  in  spite  of  threats  against  Roose 
velt's  life.  Sir  Eldon  Gorst  advised  him  not  to 
deliver  it,  as  he  could  not  guarantee  his  safety. 
Roosevelt  replied  that  he  was  not  nervous  about 
that,  that  he  would  guarantee  his  own  safety. 
Later  there  was  a  mob  demonstration  in  front 
of  Shepheard's  Hotel.  The  third,  on  "  Citizen 
ship  in  a  Republic,"  was  delivered  at  the  Sor- 
bonne  in  Paris,  April  23,  1910.  I  have  always 
wondered  how  the  following  anecdote,  told  by 
Roosevelt  in  this  address,  affected  a  Parisian 
audience:  — 

A  number  of  years  ago  I  was  engaged  in  cattle- 
ranching  on  the  great  plains  of  the  western  United 
States.  There  were  no  fences.  The  cattle  wandered 
free,  the  ownership  of  each  being  determined  by  the 
brand;  the  calves  were  branded  with  the  brand  of  the 
cows  they  followed.  If  on  the  round-up  an  animal 


THE  EUROPEAN  TRIP  153 

was  passed  by,  the  following  year  it  would  appear  as 
an  unbranded  yearling,  and  was  then  called  a  "maver 
ick."  By  the  custom  of  the  country  these  mavericks 
were  branded  with  the  brand  of  the  man  on  whose 
range  they  were  found.  One  day  I  was  riding  the 
range  with  a  newly  hired  cowboy,  and  we  came  upon 
a  maverick.  He  roped  and  threw  it;  then  we  built  a 
little  fire,  took  out  a  cinch-ring,  heated  it  at  the  fire; 
and  the  cowboy  started  to  put  on  the  brand.  I  said 
to  him,  "It  is  So-and-So's  brand,"  naming  the  man 
on  whose  range  we  happened  to  be.  He  answered: 
"That's  all  right,  boss;  I  know  my  business."  In 
another  moment  I  said  to  him,  "Hold  on,  you  are 
putting  on  my  brand!"  To  which  he  answered, 
"That's  all  right;  I  always  put  on  the  boss's  brand.'' 
I  answered,  "Oh,  very  well.  Now,  you  go  straight 
back  to  the  ranch  and  get  what  is  owing  you;  I 
don't  need  you  any  longer."  He  jumped  up  and 
said:  "Why,  what's  the  matter?  I  was  putting  on 
your  brand."  And  I  answered:  "Yes,  my  friend, 
and  if  you  will  steal  for  me  you  will  steal  from 
me." 

Now,  the  same  principle  which  applies  in  private 
life  applies  also  in  public  life.  If  a  public  man  tries 
to  get  your  vote  by  saying  that  he  will  do  something 
wrong  in  your  interest,  you  can  be  absolutely  certain 
that  if  ever  it  becomes  worth  while  he  will  do  some- 
•  thing  wrong  against  your  interest. 

Fifty-nine  thousand  copies  of  this  address 
were  printed  and  a  copy  given  to  each  school 
master  in  France.  The  speech  had  a  real  effect 


154  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

in  diminishing  the  bitterness  of  the  clerical  con 
troversy. 

The  fourth  was  an  address  delivered  before  the 
Nobel  Prize  Committee  at  Christiania,  Norway, 
May  5,  1910,  in  which  he  said  in  opening:  — 

It  is  with  peculiar  pleasure  that  I  stand  here  to-day 
to  express  the  deep  appreciation  I  feel  of  the  high 
honor  conferred  upon  me  by  the  presentation  of  the 
Nobel  Peace  Prize.  The  gold  medal  which  formed 
part  of  the  prize  I  shall  always  keep,  and  I  shall  hand 
it  on  to  my  children  as  a  precious  heirloom.  The  sum 
of  money  provided  as  part  of  the  prize  by  the  wise 
generosity  of  the  illustrious  founder  of  this  world- 
famous  prize  system,  I  did  not,  under  the  peculiar 
circumstances  of  the  case,  feel  at  liberty  to  keep.  I 
think  it  eminently  just  and  proper  that  in  most  cases 
the  recipient  of  the  prize  should  keep  for  his  own  use 
the  prize  in  its  entirety.  But  in  this  case,  while  I  did 
not  act  officially  as  President  of  the  United  States,  it 
was  nevertheless  only  because  I  was  President  that  I 
was  enabled  to  act  at  all;  and  I  felt  that  the  money 
must  be  considered  as  having  been  given  me  in  trust 
for  the  United  States.  I  therefore  used  it  as  a  nucleus 
for  a  foundation  to  forward  the  cause  of  industrial 
peace,  as  being  well  within  the  general  purpose  of 
your  Committee;  for  in  our  complex  industrial  civili 
zation  of  to-day  the  peace  of  righteousness  and  jus 
tice,  the  only  kind  of  peace  worth  having,  is  at  least 
as  necessary  in  the  industrial  world  as  it  is  among 
nations.  There  is  at  least  as  much  need  to  curb  the 
cruel  greed  and  arrogance  of  part  of  the  world  of 


THE  EUROPEAN   TRIP  155 

capital,  to  curb  the  cruel  greed  and  violence  of  part 
of  the  world  of  labor,  as  to  check  the  cruel  and  un 
healthy  militarism  in  international  relationships. 

The  fifth,  "The  Colonial  Policy  of  the  United 
States,"  was  given  at  Christiania,  Norway,  on 
the  evening  of  May  5,  1910. 

The  sixth,  "The  World  Movement,"  was  de 
livered  at  the  University  of  Berlin,  May  12, 
1910. 

On  the  day  preceding  the  lecture  in  Berlin, 
Roosevelt  was  present,  by  the  Emperor's  invi 
tation,  to  review  twelve  thousand  picked  Ger 
man  troops.  The  Emperor  said:  "My  friend 
Roosevelt,  I  am  glad  to  welcome  you,  the  most 
distinguished  American  citizen.  You  are  the 
first  civilian  who  has  ever  reviewed  German 
troops." 

The  seventh,  "The  Condition  of  Success," 

J) 

was  delivered  at  the  Cambridge  Union,  May 
26,  1910,  from  which  I  make  one  quotation  to 
support  what  I  say  elsewhere:  — 

...  I  never  was  an  athlete,  although  I  have  always 
led  an  outdoor  life,  and  have  accomplished  something 
in  it,  simply  because  my  theory  is  that  almost  any 
man  can  do  a  great  deal,  if  he  will,  by  getting  the 
utmost  possible  service  out  of  the  qualities  that  he 
actually  possesses. 


156  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

.  .  .  The  average  man  who  is  successful  —  the 
average  statesman,  the  average  public  servant,  the 
average  soldier,  who  wins  what  we  call  great  success 
—  is  not  a  genius.  He  is  a  man  who  has  merely  the 
ordinary  qualities  that  he  shares  with  his  fellows, 
but  who  has  developed  those  ordinary  qualities  to  a 
more  than  ordinary  degree. 

The  eighth,  "British  Rule  in  Africa,"  was 
given  at  the  Guildhall  in  London,  May  31, 1910. 
Sir  Edward  Grey  stated  in  Parliament  that  this 
address  was  shown  to  him  before  it  was  deliv 
ered,  was  approved  by  him,  and  was  made  by 
his  desire.  It  has  been  said  that  as  a  result  of 
this  speech,  Kitchener  was  sent  to  Egypt. 

The  ninth,  "Biological  Analogies  in  His 
tory,"  at  Oxford,  June  7,  1910,  was  perhaps  the 
most  scholarly  of  all  the  addresses.  It  was  the 
Romanes  Lecture,  and  before  it  was  delivered 
Roosevelt  had  conferred  upon  him  the  highest 
honorary  degree  Oxford  could  give.  In  this  ad 
dress  he  states  some  interesting  conclusions  he 
had  reached  as  a  student  of  biology  and  his 
tory,  and  draws,  as  he  says,  — 

certain  analogies  between  what  has  occurred  to  forms 
of  animal  life  through  the  procession  of  the  ages  on 
this  planet,  and  what  has  occurred  and  is  occurring 
to  the  great  artificial  civilizations  which  have  gradu- 


THE  EUROPEAN  TRIP  157 

ally  spread  over  the  world's  surface,  during  the  thou 
sands  of  years  that  have  elapsed  since  cities  of  tem 
ples  and  palaces  first  rose  beside  the  Nile  and  the 
Euphrates,  and  the  harbors  of  Minoan  Crete  bristled 
with  the  masts  of  the  y£gean  craft.  j 

The  formal  proceedings  were  in  Latin,  of 
which  the  following  is  a  translation,  as  it  is  given 
in  the  appendix  to  "African  and  European 
Addresses"  by  Theodore  Roosevelt:  — 

CONVOCATION 
June  7,  1910 

Followed  by  the  Delivery  of 

THE  ROMANES  LECTURE 

by 

THE  HONBLE  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 
Hon.  D.C.L 

The  Right  Honorable 

LORD  CURZON  OF  KEDLESTON 

Chancellor 

PRESIDING 

Convocation  and  the  Romanes  Lecture 

(Translation  of  the  Latin) 
The  Chancellor: 

The  object  of  this  Convocation  is,  that  if  it  be  your 
pleasure,  Gentlemen  of  the  University,  the  Honorary 
Degree  of  Doctor  of  Civil  Law  may  be  conferred  on 


158  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  Honorable  Theodore  Roosevelt,  ex-President  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  that  the  long-expected 
Romanes  Lecture  may  be  delivered  by  him,  when 
he  has  been  made  the  youngest  Doctor  in  the  Uni 
versity,  and  that  any  other  business  should  be  trans 
acted  which  may  belong  to  this  Venerable  House. 

Is  it  the  pleasure,  then,  of  this  Venerable  House 
that  the  Honorary  Degree  of  Doctor  of  Civil  Law 
should  be  conferred  upon  the  Honorable  Theodore 
Roosevelt?  Is  it  your  pleasure,  Reverend  Doctors? 
Is  it  your  pleasure,  Masters  of  the  University? 

Go,  Bedels,  and  bring  in  the  Honorable  gentleman! 
The  Chancellor  to  the  F ice-Chancellor: 

Behold,  Vice-Chancellor,  the  promised  wight, 
Before  whose  coming  comets  turned  to  flight, 
And  all  the  startled  mouths  of  sevenfold  Nile  took  fright! 

Presentation  Speech  by  Dr.  Henry  Goudy 

It  has  been  my  privilege  to  present  in  former  years 
many  distinguished  citizens  of  the  great  American 
Republic  for  our  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws, 
but  none  of  them  have  surpassed  in  merit  or  obtained 
such  world-wide  celebrity  as  he  whom  I  now  present 
to  you.  Of*ancient  Dutch  lineage,  as  his  name  indi 
cates,  but  still  a  genuine  American,  he  has  long  been 
an  outstanding  figure  among  his  fellow  citizens.  He 
first  became  known  to  us  in  England  during  the 
Spanish-American  War,  when  he  commanded  a  regi 
ment  of  cavalry  and  proved  himself  a  most  capable 
military  leader.  Omnivorous  in  his  quest  of  knowl 
edge,  nothing  in  human  affairs  seemed  to  him  super 
fluous  or  negligible.  In  the  language  of  the  poet,  one 


THE  EUROPEAN  TRIP  159 

might  say  of  him  —  "Non  sibi  sed  toti  genitum  se 
credere  mundo."  Twice  has  he  been  elevated  to  the 
position  of  President  of  the  Republic,  and  in  per 
forming  the  duties  of  that  high  office  has  acquired  a 
title  to  be  ranked  with  his  great  predecessor  Abraham 
Lincoln  —  "  Quorum  alter  servitudinem,  alter  corrup- 
tionem  vicit."  May  we  not  presage  that  still  a  third 
time  —  most  auspicious  of  numbers  —  he  may  be 
called  upon  to  take  the  reins  of  government? 

With  unrivaled  energy  and  tenacity  of  purpose  he 
has  combined  lofty  ideals  with  a  sincere  devotion  to 
the  practical  needs  not  only  of  his  fellow  countrymen, 
but  of  humanity  at  large.  A  sincere  friend  of  peace 
among  nations  —  who  does  not  know  of  his  successful 
efforts  to  terminate  the  devastating  war  between 
Russia  and  Japan?  —  he  has  also  firmly  held  that 
peace  is  only  a  good  thing  when  combined  with  jus 
tice  and  right.  He  has  ever  asserted  that  a  nation 
can  only  hope  to  survive  if  it  be  self-respecting  and 
makes  itself  respected  by  others. 

A  noted  sportsman  and  lover  of  natural  history, 
he  has  recently,  after  his  arduous  labors  as  Head  of 
the  State,  been  seeking  relaxation  in  distant  Africa, 
where  his  onslaughts  on  the  wild  beasts  of  the  desert 
have  been  not  less  fierce  nor  less  successful  than  over 
the  many-headed  hydra  of  corruption  in  his  own 
land. 

Now,  like  another  Ulysses,  on  his  homeward  way 
he  has  come  to  us  for  a  brief  interval,  after  visiting 
many  cities  and  discoursing  on  many  themes. 

Nor  must  I  omit  to  remind  you  that  our  guest, 
amid  his  engrossing  duties  of  State,  has  not  neglected 


i6o  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  Muses.  Not  less  facile  with  the  pen  than  the 
tongue,  he  has  written  on  many  topics,  and  this 
afternoon  it  will  be  our  privilege  to  listen  to  him 
discoursing  on  a  lofty  theme.  . 

By  the  Chancellor: 

Most  strenuous  of  men,  most  distinguished  of  citi 
zens  to-day  playing  a  part  on  the  stage  of  the  world, 
you  who  have  twice  administered  with  purity  the 
first  Magistracy  of  the  Great  Republic  (and  may 
perhaps  administer  it  a  third  time),  peer  of  the  most 
august  Kings,  queller  of  men,  destroyer  of  monsters 
wherever  found,  yet  the  most  human  of  mankind, 
deeming  nothing  indifferent  to  you,  not  even  the 
blackest  of  the  black;  I,  by  my  authority  and  that  of 
the  whole  University,  admit  you  to  the  Degree  of 
Doctor  of  Civil  Law,  honoris  causa. 

Go,  Bedels,  conduct  the  Honorable  Doctor  to  the 
Lectern! 

[Here  follows  the  Chancellor's  welcome,  and  the 
Romanes  Lecture. 

After  the  Lecture,  the  Chancellor  to  the  Vice- 
Chancellor.] 

And  now,  my  dear  Vice-Chancellor  —  for  it  is 
time  —  be  good  enough  to  dissolve  the  Convocation! 

The  F  ice-Chancellor: 

Exalted  Lord  Chancellor,  at  your  bidding  we  dis 
solve  the  Convocation. 
// 
'  In  reply  to  the  criticisms  sometimes  made  that 

these  addresses  contain  many  commonplace  ob- 


THE  EUROPEAN  TRIP  161 

servations,  it  may  be  said  that  this  is  true  of 
nine  tenths  of  what  is  spoken  and  written.  The 
timeliness  and  fitness  of  an  observation  most 
often  determine  its  value,  and  the  application 
of  old  and  homely  truths  to  new  situations  is 
often  as  striking  and  frequently  as  effective  as 
if  they  had  never  been  heard  before. 

Certainly  few  will  dissent  from  the  precepts 
contained  in  these  addresses  or,  if  familiar  with 
the  local  conditions,  question  their  timeliness. 
The  doctrine  of  charity  preached  at  Khartoum; 
the  danger  of  exalting  literature  and  a  literary 
education  unduly  and  at  the  expense  of  the  ap 
plied  sciences  so  necessary  to  the  advancement 
of  mankind,  pointed  out  at  Cairo,  and  the  un 
sparing  condemnation  of  lawlessness  exempli 
fied  in  the  assassination  of  Boutros  Pasha;  con 
demnation  of  the  cynic  and  the  critic  who  seek 
to  tear  down  the  well-intended  work  of  others 
while  contributing  nothing  themselves;  giving 
the  preeminent  place  to  honesty  in  the  adminis 
tration  of  affairs  of  business  or  of  politics :  surely 
these  are  all  sentiments  that  cannot  be  too  often 
repeated. 

The  opinion  expressed  by  Roosevelt  at  Paris 
that  some  other  agency  than  force  should  be 


162  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

found  in  the  settlement  of  international  dis 
putes  must  command  approval.  Nor  can  one 
dissent  from  his  proposition  that  where  the 
claims  of  peace  and  justice  conflict,  there  must 
be  resort  to  arms.  In  the  address  before  the 
Nobel  Prize  Committee  at  Christiania  he  took 
advantage  of  an  opportunity  to  advocate  that 
the  growth  of  armaments  be  checked  by  inter 
national  agreement.  In  speaking  at  Berlin,  he 
seized  an  excellent  opportunity  to  emphasize 
the  community  of  interest  of  all  the  peoples  of 
the  world,  the  wisdom  of  utilizing  the  experience 
of  all  countries  in  the  settlement  of  any  great 
social  or  economic  problem,  and  the  value  of 
everyday  virtues  as  essential  to  the  permanence 
of  the  State. 

At  Cambridge,  the  proper  place  that  sport 
should  have  in  our  lives  is  considered,  and  atten 
tion  is  directed  to  that  fact,  which  cannot  be 
too  often  stated,  that  the  best  accomplishment 
is  not  by  the  man  of  genius,  but  by  the  man  in 
whom  the  ordinary  gifts  are  developed  to  their 
full  capacity.  No  more  important  lesson  can 
be  taught  the  young,  for  it  places  success  with 
in  the  reach  of  all  who  are  willing  to  practice 
the  virtues  of  industry,  patience,  and  honesty. 


THE  VATICAN  INCIDENT  163 

Roosevelt  had  a  very  modest  opinion  of  some 
of  his  speeches.  Secretary  Hay  in  his  Diary 
mentions  the  following  conversation  with  the 
President  on  June  5,  1904: — • 

[The  President]  spoke  of  his  own  speeches,  saying 
he  knew  there  was  not  much  in  them  except  a  certain 
sincerity  and  kind  of  commonplace  morality  which 
put  him  en  rapport  with  the  people  he  talked  with. 

This  remark  to  John  Hay  no  doubt  referred 
to  the  speeches  in  which  Roosevelt  was  seeking 
to  get  the  people  to  take  what  he  considered 
the  right  view  of  some  matters  of  policy  and 
morality  which  were  vital  but  commonplace. 

It  is  not  true  that  what  Roosevelt  said  and 
wrote  was  at  all  lacking  in  originality  both  of 
thought  and  of  expression,  as  much  that  I  have 
quoted  will  demonstrate.  Other  examples  may 
be  found  in  all  the  books  and  state  papers  he 
has  written.  A  striking  one  is  the  ninth  chap 
ter  of  his  autobiography  which  he  regards  as 
the  best  chapter  he  ever  wrote. 

§j*~^f^~-£ — - 
The  Vatican  Incident 

One  matter  to  which  I  wish  to  refer  occurred 
during  Roosevelt's  stay  in  Europe  and  was  the 
so-called  Vatican  incident.  When  in  Africa, 


164  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

in  reply  to  an  inquiry  from  our  Ambassador  at 
Rome,  he  stated  that  of  course  he  would  be  glad 
to  be  received  by  the  King  of  Italy  and  to  be 
presented  to  the  Pope.  Our  Ambassador,  in 
response  to  this  suggestion,  received  the  follow 
ing  message  from  the  Rector  of  the  American 
Catholic  College:  "The  Holy  Father  will  be 
delighted  to  grant  audience  to  Mr.  Roosevelt 
on  April  5th,  and  hopes  nothing  will  arise  to 
prevent  it,  such  as  the  much-regretted  incident 
which  made  the  reception  of  Mr.  Fairbanks 
impossible."  Roosevelt  replied  to  our  Ambassa 
dor  as  follows:  "On  the  other  hand,  I  in  my 
turn  must  decline  to  have  any  stipulations 
made  or  submit  to  any  conditions  which  in  any 
way  limit  my  freedom  of  conduct."  To  this  the 
Vatican  replied  through  our  Ambassador:  "On 
the  other  hand,  in  view  of  the  circumstances 
for  which  neither  His  Holiness  nor  Mr.  Roose 
velt  is  responsible,  an  audience  could  not  occur 
except  on  the  understanding  expressed  in  the 
former  message." 

In  response  to  this,  Roosevelt  sent  the  fol 
lowing  message  to  our  Ambassador:  "Proposed 
presentation  is,  of  course,  now  impossible." 
Cardinal  Merry  del  Val  said  to  Mr.  O'Loughlin, 


THE  VATICAN  INCIDENT  165 

"Can  you  guarantee  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  will 
not  visit  the  Methodists  here  ? "  Mr.  O'Loughlin 
said  in  reply,  "I  cannot.  Indeed,  I  believe  that 
Mr.  Roosevelt  is  just  the  man  to  go  there.  He 
will  do  as  he  pleases." 

Roosevelt  subsequently  issued  the  following 
statement:  — 

I  had  made  no  arrangements  to  speak  at  any  church 
or  clerical  organization  in  Rome.  I  have  received  a 
number  of  gentlemen  of  all  religious  faiths  who  have 
called  at  my  rooms  or  at  the  American  Embassy. 
Under  the  circumstances,  I  have  requested  the 
American  Ambassador  not  to  hold  the  reception 
which  he  had  intended  to  hold. 

Roosevelt  met  the  issue  squarely,  and  in 
doing  so  ran  great  risk  of  offending  both  the 
Catholics  and  Methodists  in  this  country  in 
stead  of  winning  the  approval  of  either,  a  risk 
no  "politician"  would  have  run,  particularly 
one  looking  for  political  preferment. 

Roosevelt  had  been  advised  and  urged  not  to 
go  to  Rome  and  thus  to  avoid  trouble.  He  said 
that  he  would  not  invite  trouble,  but  would  not 
go  a  hand's  breadth  out  of  his  way  to  avoid 
trouble  when  he  knew  that  he  was  in  the  right. 

His  journey  through  Europe  had  been  a  royal 
progress  and  he  had  been  received  on  every  hand 


166  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

with  great  acclaim  as  the  champion  of  the  doc 
trine  of  equality  of  opportunity  for  all  men,  ir 
respective  of  race,  creed,  or  color.  He  reached 
New  York  on  Saturday,  June  18,  1910,  and  re 
ceived  a  wonderful  welcome.  Measuring  by 
human  standards,  I  suppose  that  he  reached  on 
that  day  the  zenith  of  his  fame.  At  the  dinner 
given  for  him  at  that  time,  he  said  to  a  friend: 
"I  am  like  Peary  at  the  North  Pole;  there  is  no 
way  for  me  to  travel  except  South." 

A  member  of  his  family  has  told  me  that  on 
the  afternoon  of  the  dinner  some  one  saw  Roose 
velt  coming  out  of  Scribner's  bookstore.  In 
stantly  a  great,  cheering  crowd  gathered,  all 
struggling  to  get  at  him  and  shake  his  hand. 
Speaking  of  this  incident  he  said,  "It  is  a  kind 
of  hysteria.  They  will  soon  be  throwing  rotten 
eggs  at  me." 

Roosevelt  and  His  Candidacy  for  the  Republican 
Nomination  in  1912 

Properly  to  understand  the  situation  from 
my  point  of  view,  we  must  go  back  to  the  elec 
tion  of  1904,  of  which  Roosevelt  said  in  his  ad 
dress  before  the  Cambridge  (England)  Union, 
in  1910:  — 


CAMPAIGN  OF   1912  167 

During  my  first  term  of  office  as  President  of  the 
United  States,  I  said:  "Now,  I  do  not  wish  there  to 
be  any  misunderstanding.  I  like  my  job,  and  I  want 
to  keep  it  for  four  years  longer."  [Loud  laughter  and 
applause.]  I  don't  think  any  President  ever  enjoyed 
himself  more  than  I  did.  Moreover,  I  don't  think 
any  ex-President  ever  enjoyed  himself  more.  I  have 
enjoyed  my  life  and  my  work  because  I  thoroughly 
believe  that  success  —  the  real  success  —  does  not 
depend  upon  the  position  you  hold,  but  upon  how 
you  carry  yourself  in  that  position. 

There  is  no  doubt  in  the  mind  of  any  one,  I 
think,  that  the  President  did  like  his  job  and 
wanted  to  be  elected  in  1904,  as  he  was  by  a 
majority  staggering  in  its  size.  There  is  no 
doubt  whatever  that  he  liked  the  job  equally 
well  when  he  finished  his  term  in  1909,  and  I 
have  never  heard  any  doubt  expressed  that  he 
could  have  received  the  nomination  in  1908,  for 
a  second  "elective  term,"  as  some  liked  to  ex 
press  it,  had  he  desired  it  or  even  said  that  he 
would  accept  it.  He  was  not  weary  of  the  office 
in  1908,  nor  was  he  unduly  oppressed  and 
weighed  down,  as  many  men  have  been,  by  its 
responsibilities.  If  he  ever  had  an  overpowering 
ambition  to  continue  to  be  President,  he  must 
have  had  it  then;  and  had  he  possessed  the  lust 
for  power  that  has  been  credited  to  him  by  some 


168  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

of  his  critics,  it  would  have  led  him  then  to  ac 
cept  a  nomination  which  his  party  was  ready 
to  thrust  upon  him.  What  a  personal  triumph 
it  would  have  been  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  ambitious  man  to  hold  the  office  for  practi 
cally  three  consecutive  terms,  something  that 
no  President  had  ever  done,  and  yet  Roosevelt 
turned  away  from  it.  On  the  night  of  the  elec 
tion  in  1904,  when  his  election  was  assured,  he 
said:  — 

The  wise  custom  which  limits  the  President  to  two 
terms  regards  the  substance  and  not  the  form,  and 
under  no  circumstances  will  I  be  a  candidate  for  or 
accept  another  nomination. 

And  he  repeated  the  statement  in  December, 
1907,  and  devoted  himself,  with  all  his  energy, 
to  aiding  in  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Taft.  Not 
only  that,  but  every  precaution  was  taken  to 
prevent  the  stampeding  to  Roosevelt  of  the 
1908  Convention,  of  which  there  was  always 
danger.  His  trusted  personal  and  political 
friend,  Senator  Henry  Cabot  Lodge,  was  chair 
man  of  the  convention,  occupying  that  position 
for  two  purposes  —  to  make  impossible  the  nomi 
nation  of  Roosevelt,  to  make  certain  the  nomina 
tion  of  Taft.  In  his  speech  Senator  Lodge  said :  — 


CAMPAIGN  OF   1912  169 

That  man  is  no  friend  of  Theodore  Roosevelt  and 
does  not  cherish  his  name  and  fame  who,  now,  from 
any  motive,  seeks  to  urge  him  as  a  candidate  for  the 
great  office  which  he  has  finally  declined.  The  Presi 
dent  has  refused  what  his  countrymen  would  have 
gladly  given  him.  He  says  what  he  means  and  means 
what  he  says,  and  his  party  and  his  country  will 
respect  his  wishes,  as  they  honor  his  high  character 
and  his  great  public  services. 

There  is  no  evidence  of  which  I  ever  heard 
that  Roosevelt  on  his  European  trip  gave  a 
thought  to  the  nomination  in  1912.  Upon  his 
return  in  May,  1910,  at  a  public  dinner  given 
for  him  in  New  York,  he  said:  — 

I  am  ready  and  eager  to  do  my  part,  so  far  as  I  am 
able,  in  helping  solve  problems  which  must  be  solved 
if  we,  in  this  the  greatest  democratic  republic  upon 
which  the  sun  has  ever  shone,  are  to  see  its  destinies 
rise  to  the  high  level  of  our  hopes  and  its  opportuni 
ties. 

I  think  the  suggestion  here  that  he  was 
"ready  and  eager  to  do  his  part"  gave  some 
anxiety  to  his  friends,  who  were  more  jealous 
than  he  of  his  great  fame.  This  anxiety  was 
increased  two  months  later  when  at  Harvard 
Commencement,  as  President  of  the  Alumni 
Association,  Roosevelt,  at  the  request  of  Gov 
ernor  Hughes,  of  New  York,  sent  the  following 


170  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

telegram   to   Mr.    Griscom,    Chairman   of   the 
Republican  State  Committee:  — 

During  the  last  week,  great  numbers  of  Republi 
cans  and  independent  voters  from  all  over  the  State 
[New  York]  having  written  me  urging  the  passage 
of  Direct  Primary  legislation.  I  have  seen  Governor 
Hughes  and  have  learned  your  views  from  your 
representative.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  Cobb  Bill, 
with  the  amendments  proposed  by  you,  meets  the 
needs  of  the  situation.  I  believe  that  the  people  de 
mand  it.  I  most  earnestly  hope  that  it  will  be  enacted 
into  law. 

Roosevelt  was  again  in  politics,  to  the  regret, 
I  think,  of  many  of  his  friends,  and  to  his  own 
surprise,  I  firmly  believe.  This  was  his  explana 
tion  of  it  at  the  time.  In  introducing  Governor 
Hughes  ^t  the  Alumni  luncheon,  Roosevelt 
said:  — 

Our  Governor  has  a  very  persuasive  way  with  him. 
I  had  intended  to  keep  absolutely  clear  from  any 
kind  of  public  or  political  question  after  coming 
home,  and  I  could  carry  out  my  resolution  all  right 
until  I  met  the  Governor  this  morning,  and  he  then 
explained  to  me  that  I  had  come  back  to  live  in  New- 
York  now;  that  I  had  to  help  him  out,  and  after  a 
very  brief  conversation,  I  put  up  my  hands  and 
agreed  to  help  him. 

In  October  of  that  year,  Roosevelt  was 
Chairman  of  the  New  York  Republican  State 


CAMPAIGN  OF   1912  171 

Convention,  defeating  James  S.  Sherman,  then 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Stim- 
son  was  nominated  for  governor  as  a  Roosevelt 
candidate  and  was  defeated  by  100,000  votes.  •  , 
In  commenting  on  the  election,  Roosevelt  said 
at  a  later  period,  when  he  had  become  a  candi 
date  for  the  Republican  nomination  for  Presi 
dent:— 

In  that  contest,  as  in  this,  I  was  exceedingly  reluc 
tant  to  be  drawn  into  the  contest.  In  that  contest,  as 
in  this,  I  acted  only  from  a  sense  of  duty  to  the  people 
as  a  whole,  and  in  that  contest  I  was  assailed  with 
precisely  the  same  arguments  by  the  great  majority 
of  those  who  are  now  assailing  me.  If  I  had  consid 
ered  only  my  own  personal  interests  and  personal 
preferences,  I  would,  of  course,  have  kept  out  of  the 
1910  campaign,  have  let  the  machine  remain  in  con 
trol  at  Saratoga,  and  have  seen  the  State  go  Demo 
cratic  by  300,000  majority,  as  under  those  circum 
stances  it  certainly  would  have  gone.  I  went  in 
because  I  conscientiously  felt  that  it  was  my  duty  to 
take  my  part  in  the  fight  for  honest  government,  for 
genuine  self-government  by  the  people,  without 
regard  to  the  consequences  to  myself,  and  I  am  in 
this  fight  on  precisely  the  same  basis  and  for  pre 
cisely  the  same  reasons. 

As  the  Convention  of  1912  drew  near,  there 
was  much  speculation  as  to  whether  Roosevelt 
would  be  a  candidate  or  not.  Many  people 


1/2  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

regarded  his  statement  which  I  have  quoted  as 
a  bar  to  his  doing  so.  It  was  obviously  open  to 
the  construction  that  he  would  never  under  any 
circumstances  at  any  time  be  a  candidate.  As 
to  what  it  was  intended  to  express,  Mr.  Loeb, 
who  was  Roosevelt's  secretary  at  the  time,  has 
told  me  that  when  the  statement  was  drafted, 
it  was  suggested  that  it  be  limited  in  express 
terms  to  the  election  of  1908,  but  that  that  was 
disapproved  for  the  reason  that  a  declaration 
that  Roosevelt  would  not  run  in  1908  would  be 
accepted  as  tantamount  to  a  statement  that  he 
would  run  in  1912,  which  Roosevelt  then  had 
no  intention  of  doing,  nor  had  he  any  intention 
of  saying  anything  that  would  not  leave  him 
free  after  1908.  A  reporter  present  asked  Roose 
velt  if  this  applied  to  1912.  He  replied:  — 

Now,  gentlemen,  that  is  something  I  don't  intend 
to  speak  about.  You  accept  my  statement  just  as  I 
have  made  it. 

A  prominent  newspaper  man  recently  said 
to  me :  — 

At  that  time  none  of  the  correspondents  dreamed 
of  interpreting  his  refusal  to  be  a  candidate  as  apply 
ing  to  any  other  year  than  1908.  It  was  made  to  set 
at  rest  the  rumors  that  he  would  try  to  succeed  him 
self  at  the  end  of  the  term  to  which  he  had  just  been 


CAMPAIGN  OF   1912  173 

elected,  and  none  of  us  interpreted  it  in  any  other 
way.  Not  until  he  began  to  be  talked  of  as  a  candi 
date  in  1912  did  anybody  try  to  make  it  appear  that 
his  1904  statement  was  intended  to  cover  all  the  rest 
of  his  life  so  as  to  bar  him  from  running  forever. 

I  regard  the  episode  as  unfortunate,  but  as  in 
no  way  reflecting  upon  Roosevelt's  good  faith. 

I  had  a  long  talk  with  Roosevelt  in  Novem 
ber,  1911.  I  spoke  to  him  of  the  convention  and 
of  his  possible  candidacy.  He  said,  in  sub 
stance,  that  he  did  not  want  to  be  a  candidate 
• —  that  he  did  not  want  the  office  again,  and 
that  he  believed  that  it  would  be  a  great  risk 
for  him  to  take  it,  and  that  he  had  no  idea  that 
conditions  would  arise  that  would  make  it  neces 
sary.  If,  however,  such  conditions  should  arise 
and  it  should  become  in  his  opinion  a  duty,  he 
would  not  decline  to  be  drafted.  As  late  as 
December,  1911,  he  wrote  to  influential  men  of 
the  party  in  Washington  urging  them  to  do 
everything  they  could  to  stop  any  mention  of 
his  name  in  connection  with  the  office.  I  talked 
with  him  again  in  January,  1912,  and  again  he 
said  he  did  not  want  the  nomination,  he  doubted 
if  any  Republican  could  be  elected,  and  that  he 
personally  had  everything  to  lose  and  nothing 


,174  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

to  gain  if  he  should  enter  the  contest,  but  again 
he  said  that  if  there  should  be  an  uprising  of 
the  people,  which  he  did  not  anticipate,  he  might 
consider  it.  When  I  asked  him  why  he  did  not 
say  that  under  no  circumstances  would  he  ac 
cept  the  office  if  it  were  tendered  him,  —  and 
be  it  remembered  that  I  was  in  favor  of  Mr. 
Taft's  nomination,  —  he  said,  in  substance,  "I 
had  to  eat  my  words  once  in  connection  with 
the  Vice-Presidency,  and  I  don't  want  to  run 
any  chance  of  having  to  do  it  again." 

During  all  this  time  the  supporters  of  all  the 
candidates  had  been  hard  at  work  to  secure 
delegates,  but  nothing  was  done  by  Roosevelt, 
nor  did  he  want  anything  done.  He  stated  over 
and  over  again  that  he  did  not  want  anything 
done  and  wanted  nothing  left  undone  that  would 
prevent  anything  being  done. 

Meantime,  as  he  has  told  me,  Republican 
governors  of  several  States  were  writing  him 
and  seeing  him,  urging  that  he  be  a  candidate. 
He  told  them  that  he  was  not  convinced  that 
there  was  any  popular  demand  for  his  candi 
dacy.  Gradually,  however,  through  all  kinds 
of  interviews,  through  all  kinds  of  articles  in 
the  papers,  through  all  kinds  of  letters  and  other 


CAMPAIGN  OF   1912  175 

communications,  he  became  convinced,  by  a  sort 
of  cumulative  process,  that  two  thirds  of  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  Republican  party  wished 
him  to  run;  and  further,  that  unless  he  made 
the  fight  for  the  principles  in  which  he  believed 
with  all  his  heart  and  soul,  there  would  be  no 
fight  at  all  made  for  them.  He  was  in  this  state 
of  mind  when,  on  February  10,  1912,  at  a  meet 
ing  in  Chicago,  the  Republican  governors  of 
seven  States,  West  Virginia,  Nebraska,  New 
Hampshire,  Wyoming,  Michigan,  Kansas,  and 
Missouri,  asked  Roosevelt  in  the  following  let 
ter  to  become  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency:  — 

We,  the  undersigned  Republican  governors,  as 
sembled  for  the  purpose  of  considering  what  will 
best  insure  the  continuation  of  the  Republican  party 
as  a  useful  agency  of  good  government,  declare  it  our 
belief,  after  a  careful  investigation  of  the  facts,  that 
a  large  majority  of  the  Republican  voters  of  the 
country  favor  your  nomination,  and  a  large  majority 
of  the  people  favor  your  election,  as  the  next  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States. 

We  believe  that  your  candidacy  will  insure  success 
in  the  next  campaign.  We  believe  that  you  repre 
sent,  as  no  other  man  represents,  those  principles 
and  policies  upon  which  we  must  appeal  for  a  major 
ity  of  the  votes  of  the  American  people,  and  which, 
in  our  opinion,  are  necessary  for  the  happiness  and 
prosperity  of  the  country. 


176  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

We  believe  that,  in  view  of  this  public  demand, 
you  should  soon  declare  whether,  if  the  nomination 
for  the  Presidency  come  to  you  unsolicited  and  un 
sought,  you  will  accept  it. 

In  submitting  this  request  we  are  not  considering 
your  personal  interests.  We  do  not  regard  it  as 
proper  to  consider  either  the  interests  or  the  prefer 
ence  of  any  man  as  regards  the  nomination  for  the 
Presidency.  We  are  expressing  our  sincere  belief  and 
best  judgment  as  to  what  is  demanded  of  you  in  the 
interests  of  the  people  as  a  whole.  And  we  feel  that 
you  would  be  unresponsive  to  a  plain  public  duty  if 
you  should  decline  to  accept  the  nomination,  coming 
as  the  voluntary  expression  of  the  wishes  of  a  major 
ity  of  the  Republican  voters  of  the  United  States, 
through  the  action  of  their  delegates  in  the  next 
National  Convention. 

.r  ..f 

With  the  knowledge  that  he  would  be  a 
candidate,  Roosevelt  made,  on  February  21, 
1912,  his  Columbus__S£eech  on  "A  Charter  of 
Democracy,"  in  which,  among  other  things,  he 
advocated  the  recall  of  judicial  decisions.  This 
speech  alienated  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Re 
publican  votes.  He  did  not  need  to  make  it  to 
secure  the  votes  of  radicals  —  those  were  his 
already.  He  must  have  known,  as  well  as  any 
one,  what  the  result  would  be.  And  then,  when 
he  had  left  nothing  undone  and  had  done  every 
thing  to  make  his  nomination  in  a  Republican 


CAMPAIGN  OF  1912  177 

Convention  impossible,  he  replied,  under  date 
of  February  24,  1912,  to  the  letter  of  the  seven 
governors,  as  follows :  — 

I  deeply  appreciate  your  letter,  and  I  realize  to 
the  full  the  heavy  responsibility  it  puts  upon  me, 
expressing  as  it  does  the  carefully  considered  convic 
tions  of  the  men  elected  by  popular  vote  to  stand  as 
the  heads  of  government  in  their  several  States. 

I  absolutely  agree  with  you  that  this  matter  is  not 
one  to  be  decided  with  any  reference  to  the  personal 
preferences  or  interests  of  any  man,  but  purely  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  interests  of  the  people  as  a 
whole.  I  will  accept  the  nomination  for  President  if 
it  is  tendered  to  me,  and  I  will  adhere  to  this  decision 
until  the  convention  has  expressed  its  preference. 
One  of  the  chief  principles  for  which  I  have  stood  and 
for  which  I  now  stand,  and  which  I  have  always  en 
deavored  and  always  shall  endeavor  to  reduce  to 
action,  is  the  genuine  rule  of  the  people;  and  there 
fore  I  hope  that  so  far  as  possible  the  people  may  be 
given  the  chance,  through  direct  primaries,  to  express 
their  preference  as  to  who  shall  be  the  nominee  of  the 
Republican  Presidential  Convention. 

It  is  my  conviction  that  Roosevelt  entered 
this  campaign  without  any  desire  to  gratify  a 
personal  ambition,  but  as  the  leader  of  a  cause 
in  which  he  believed  and  without  any  thought  as 
to  how  his  personal  fortunes  would  be  affected. 
Recently  he  wrote  me :  — 


178  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

You  know  that  1912  really  represented  merely  the 
goal  of  thought  for  which  I  had  always  been  heading. 
From  my  standpoint  it  was  merely  the  effort  to 
apply  the  principles  of  Abraham  Lincoln  to  the  con 
ditions  of  the  twentieth  century. 

His  political  creed  is  contained  in  the  Car 
negie  Hall  Address  of  March  20,  1912,  printed 
in  the  Appendix,  in  which  he  said  toward  the 
close :  — 

In  order  to  succeed  we  need  leaders  of  inspired 
idealism,  leaders  to  whom  are  granted  great  visions, 
who  dream  greatly  and  strive  to  make  their  dreams 
come  true;  who  can  kindle  the  people  with  the  fire 
from  their  own  burning  souls.  The  leader  for  the 
time  being,  whoever  he  may  be,  is  but  an  instrument, 
to  be  used  until  broken  and  then  to  be  cast  aside; 
and  if  he  ia  worth  his  salt  he  will  care  no  more  when 
he  is  broken  than  a  soldier  cares  when  he  is  sent 
where  his  life  is  forfeit  in  order  that  the  victory  may 
be  won.  In  the  long  fight  for  righteousness  the  watch 
word  for  all  of  us  is,  spend  and  be  spent.  It  is  of  little 
matter  whether  any  one  man  fails  or  succeeds;  but 
the  cause  shall  not  fail,  for  it  is  the  cause  of  mankind. 

This  expressed  his  state  of  mind.  Many  of 
his  friends  would  have  preferred  to  have  him 
preserve  the  great  fame  that  was  his,  undimmed 
by  any  conflict  in  the  political  arena  that  might 
well  lead  to  reverses.  He  chose  for  himself  the 
other  course.  "In  the  long  fight  for  righteous- 


RECALL  OF  JUDICIAL  DECISIONS     179 

ness,  the  watchword  for  all  of  us  is,  spend  and 
be  spent.  It  is  of  little  matter  whether  any  one 
man  fails  or  succeeds,  but  the  cause  shall  not 
fail,  for  it  is  the  cause  of  mankind.") 

/ 

Roosevelt  and  the  Recall  of  Judicial  Decisions  ' 
There  is  probably  no  one  doctrine  urged  by 
Roosevelt  that  has  aroused  so  much  criticism 
or  alienated  so  many  of  his  conservative  sup 
porters  as  that  of  the  recall  of  judicial  decisions 
advocated  in  his  Columbus  speech.  Whether 
one  agrees  with  him  or  not  (and  I  am  one  of 
those  who  do  not),  his  position  should  be  fairly 
understood  and  he  should  not  be  charged  with 
having  advanced  this  doctrine  in  any  dema 
gogic  spirit.  That  he  was  absolutely  sincere  in 
his  opinion,  and  that  it  was  the  result  of  many 
years  of  thought,  is  not  only,  I  believe,  true, 
but  can  easily  be  demonstrated  to  be  so. 

I  have  referred  earlier  in  this  narrative  to 
the  decision,  in  1885,  of  the  Court  of  Appeals 
of  New  York  in  finding  unconstitutional  the 
act  of  the  Legislature  declaring  unlawful  the 
manufacture  in  tenement  houses  of  cigars  or  of 
tobacco  into  other  forms,  and  stated  that  then, 
nearly  thirty  years  before  the  Columbus  speech, 


i8o  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 

Roosevelt's  wrath  was  roused  against  that  kind 
of  judicial  mind,  which,  as  he  said,  was  blind 
to  changed  social  conditions  and  which  was  dis 
posed  so  to  limit  the  area  of  the  "police  power" 
as  to  make  it  impossible  to  legislate  for  the  cor 
rection  of  such  abuses  as  the  one  I  have  men 
tioned,  namely,  the  limiting  of  the  number  of 
hours  of  work  in  unhealthy  occupations,  and 
others  of  a  kindred  nature.  He  gave  expression 
to  his  views  from  time  to  time  in  his  messages 
to  Congress  and  elsewhere,  and  was  for  many 
years  seeking  a  remedy  which  finally  he  thought 
he  had  found  in  the  recall  of  judicial  decisions. 
Before  considering  in  detail  what  Roosevelt's 
views  are  upon  this  subject,  let  us  understand 
just  what  the  police  power  is,  how  it  has  been 
invoked  by  legislatures,  and  how  construed  by 
the  courts.  As  an  original  proposition,  one  can 
engage  in  any  lawful  undertaking  and  make 
any  kind  of  a  contract,  lawful  in  its  purpose, 
without  interference  by  either  the  legislatures 
or  the  courts;  but  as  time  has  gone  on  and 
social  conditions  have  changed,  certain  restric 
tions  have  been  imposed  upon  the  way  in  which 
a  man  may  carry  on  his  business  and  the  kind  of 
contracts  he  can  make,  involving  the  welfare  of 


RECALL  OF  JUDICIAL  DECISIONS     181 

others.  For  example,  the  slaughter  of  cattle  is 
a  necessary  and  useful  business,  but  attended 
necessarily  by  disagreeable  incidents,  so  that 
it  has  been  found  necessary  in  thickly  settled 
communities  to  impose  certain  conditions  under 
which  the  business  must  be  carried  on.  This  is 
an  exercise  of  the  police  power.  Similarly,  the 
right  to  contract  with  a  woman  for  her  labor  is 
restricted  in  order  that  her  strength  may  not 
be  unduly  wasted  and  deterioration  of  the  race 
follow.  This  is  another  exercise  of  the  police 
power.  As  the  Supreme  Court  once  said:  — 

Of  course,  it  is  impossible  to  forecast  the  character 
and  extent  of  these  changes,  but  in  view  of  the  fact 
that,  from  the  day  Magna  Charta  was  signed  to  the 
present  moment,  amendments  to  the  structure  of 
the  law  have  been  made  with  increasing  frequency, 
it  is  impossible  to  suppose  that  they  will  not  continue, 
and  the  law  be  forced  to  adapt  itself  to  the  new  con 
dition  of  society,  and,  particularly  to  new  relations 
between  employers  and  employees,  as  they  arise. 

And,  on  another  occasion:  — 

It  is  the  thoroughly  established  doctrine  of  the  court 
that  liberty  of  contract  may  be  circumscribed  in  the 
interest  of  the  State  and  welfare  of  the  people,  and 
whether  a  given  exercise  of  such  authority  transcends 
the  limits  of  legislative  authority  must  be  determined 
in  each  case  as  it  arises. 


1 82  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

In  the  tenement-house  decision  to  which  I 
have  referred,  the  court  held  that  a  man  should 
be  permitted  to  manufacture  cigars  in  a  tene 
ment  and  that  it  was  not  harmful  to  proper 
conditions  of  living  or  to  society.  This  was  a 
naked  question  of  fact,  and  Roosevelt's  recall 
of  judicial  decisions  amounts  simply  to  this: 
that  the  people  who  made  the  Constitution 
shall  in  this  and  kindred  cases  have  an  oppor 
tunity  to  say  what  is  and  what  is  not  an  exer 
cise  of  the  police  power  necessary  to  meet  exist 
ing  conditions,  and  that  the  final  settlement  of 
the  question  shall  not  rest  with  perhaps  a  bare 
majority  of  seven  or  nine  judges. 

For  example,  in  his  message  of  December, 
1908,  he  said,  speaking  of  judicial  decisions 
which  nullify  legislative  attempts  to  protect 
wage- workers :  — 

The  talk  about  preserving,  to  the  misery-hunted 
beings  who  make  contracts  for  such  service,  their 
"liberty"  to  make  them,  is  either  to  speak  in  a  spirit 
of  heartless  irony  or  else  to  show  an  utter  lack  of 
knowledge  of  the  conditions  of  life  among  the  great 
mass  of  fellow  countrymen,  a  lack  which  unfits  a 
judge  to  do  good  service  just  as  it  would  unfit  any 
executive  or  legislative  officer. 

Speaking  of  the  decision  of  the  New  York 


RECALL  OF  JUDICIAL  DECISIONS     183 

Court  of  Appeals  declaring  unconstitutional  the 
New  York  law  to  provide  for  Workmen's  Com 
pensation  on  the  ground  that  the  proposed 
law  is  in  conflict  with  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  he  said  (May,  1911):  — 

It  is  not  merely  the  right  but  the  duty  of  every 
friend  of  genuine  justice  and  progress  to  protest 
against  the  decision  in  question.  When  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Connecticut  rendered  a  decision  akin  to 
that  rendered  by  the  Court  of  Appeals  on  the  same 
subject,  this  decision  was  circulated  by  the  great 
railway  corporations  very  widely  before  the  legisla 
tures  and  courts  in  other  States  in  order  to  prevent 
or  nullify  legislation  designed  to  secure  compensation 
to  workingmen.  Exactly  similar  action  is  now  being 
taken  in  connection  with  this  decision  of  the  New 
York  Court  of  Appeals.  .  .  .  The  Court  of  Appeals 
in  this  decision  fully  admits  the  iniquity  and  injustice 
wrought  by  the  principles  which  it  proceeds  to  up 
hold.  Its  contention  is  that  the  hands  of  the  legisla 
tures,  the  hands  of  the  people,  are  tied  by  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States,  and  that  we  cannot 
get  justice  for  workingmen  or  secure  them  against 
the  most  cruel  wrong  because  the  Federal  Constitu 
tion  and  the  State  Constitution  of  New  York,  in  the 
narrowest  and  most  technical  spirit,  guarantee  all 
persons  against  deprivation  of  liberty  or  property 
without  due  process  of  law.  .  .  .  The  people  must 
have  the  right  ultimately  to  determine  for  them 
selves  what  great  lines  of  government  policy  are  to 
be  followed  by  the  State;  they  have  never  surrendered 


1 84  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

this  ultimate  right  to  the  judges  or  any  one  else,  and 
it  is  our  duty  to  see  that  it  is  not  kept  merely  as  a 
nominal  and  unreal  right,  a  sham  right,  but  that 
machinery  shall  be  devised  to  make  it  a  real,  working 
right,  which  can  be  invoked  and  put  into  effect,  but 
without  too  much  difficulty. 

And  in  his  Osawatomie  speech  of  September, 

1910,  he  includes  the  following  among  the  aims 
of  the  New  Nationalism:  — 

It  demands  of  the  judiciary  that  it  shall  be  inter 
ested  primarily  in  human  welfare  rather  than  in 
property,  just  as  it  demands  that  the  representative 
body  shall  represent  all  the  people  rather  than  one 
class  or  section  of  the  people. 

In  his  speech  before  the  Colorado  Legisla 
ture,  in  August,  1910,  he  justified  his  criticisms 
of  the  courts  by  referring  to  Lincoln's  comment 
on  the  Dred  Scott  case,  and  to  Judge  Har- 
lan's  comments  on  the  majority  opinion  in  the 
Knight  case.  Had  his  speech  been  made  a  year 
later,  he  might  well  have  referred  to  Judge  Har- 
lan's  criticism  of  the  majority  opinion  of  the  Su 
preme  Court  in  the  Standard  Oil  Company  and 
American  Tobacco  Company  cases.  In  the  case 
of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  decided  May  15, 

1911,  the  learned  justice  said,  speaking  of  the 
majority  opinion:  — 


RECALL  OF  JUDICIAL  DECISIONS    185 

After  many  years  of  public  service  at  the  National 
Capital  and  after  a  somewhat  close  observation  of 
the  conduct  of  public  affairs,  I  am  impelled  to  say 
that  there  is  abroad  in  our  land  a  most  harmful 
tendency  to  bring  about  the  amending  of  constitu 
tions  and  legislative  enactments  by  means  alone  of 
judicial  construction.  ...  To  overreach  the  action 
of  Congress  merely  by  judicial  construction  —  that 
is,  by  indirection  —  is  a  blow  at  the  integrity  of  our 
governmental  system,  and  in  the  end  will  prove  most 
dangerous  to  all. 

And  again,  in  the  case  of  the  American  To 
bacco  Company,  decided  two  weeks  later:  — 

In  short,  the  court  now,  by  judicial  legislation,  in 
effect  amends  an  act  of  Congress  relating  to  a  subject 
over  which  that  department  of  the  Government  has 
exclusive  cognizance. 

An  early  example  of  the  criticism  of  the 
courts  is  found  in  a  letter  from  Thomas  Jeffer 
son  to  a  Mr.  Jarvis,  dated  Monticello,  Sep 
tember  28,  1820,  from  which  the  following  is 
an  extract:  — 

You  seem  to  consider  the  judges  as  the  ultimate 
arbiters  of  all  constitutional  questions;  a  very  dan 
gerous  doctrine,  indeed,  and  one  which  would  place 
us  under  the  despotism  of  an  oligarchy.  Our  judges 
are  as  honest  as  other  men  and  no  more  so.  They 
have,  with  others,  the  same  passions  for  party,  for 
power,  and  the  privilege  of  their  corps.  Their  maxim 


186  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

is  "boni  judicis  est  ampliare  jurisdictionem"  and 
their  power  the  more  dangerous  as  they  are  in  office 
for  life,  and  not  responsible,  as  the  other  function 
aries  are,  to  the  elective  control.  ...  I  know  no  safe 
depositary  of  the  ultimate  powers  of  the  society  but 
the  people  themselves;  and  if  we  think  them  not 
enlightened  enough  to  exercise  their  control  with  a 
wholesome  discretion,  the  remedy  is  not  to  take  it 
from  them,  but  to  inform  their  discretion  by  education. 

A  case  illustrating  how  judges  may  differ  is 
that  of  Coppage  vs.  Kansas,  decided  by  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  January 
25,  1915.  It  was  this:  There  was  a  statute  of 
the  State  of  Kansas  forbidding  employers  to 
exact  from  employees,  as  a  condition  of  secur 
ing  or  retaining  employment,  a  promise  not  to 
join  or  retain  membership  in  a  labor  organiza 
tion.  The  local  court  found  a  defendant  guilty 
of  this  offense  and  the  judgment  was  affirmed 
by  the  Supreme  Court  of  Kansas.  The  case  was 
appealed  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  on  the  ground  that  the  statute  as  con 
strued  was  in  conflict  with  that  provision  of  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  which  declares  that  no  State 
shall  deprive  any  person  of  liberty  or  property 
without  due  process  of  law.  The  majority  of 


RECALL  OF  JUDICIAL  DECISIONS    187 

the  court  held  that  if  freedom  to  contract  is  to 
be  preserved,  the  employer  must  be  left  at  lib 
erty  to  decide  for  himself  whether  such  mem 
bership  by  his  employee  is  consistent  with  the 
satisfactory  performance  of  the  duties  of  the 
employment.  The  minority  of  the  court  agreed 
with  the  Kansas  court,  which  took  the  view  that 
employees  are  not  financially  able  to  be  as  in 
dependent  in  making  contracts  for  selling  their 
labor  as  employers  in  buying  it,  and  that  the 
statute  did  not  go  beyond  the  legitimate  exer 
cise  of  the  police  power.  Here  are  opposing 
views  of  the  same  statute,  the  majority  view 
being  held  by  six  members  of  the  court  and  the 
minority  view  by  three.  Who  shall  say  which  is 
right?  Upon  this  question  of  fact,  the  minority 
view  certainly  shows  the  trend  of  thought  at 
the  present  time  when  we  recognize  that  asso 
ciations  of  employees  are  necessary  to  place 
them  on  an  equality  with  their  employers  in 
bargaining  for  the  sale  of  service.  It  is  on  this 
class  of  cases  in  the  lower  courts  that  the  recall 
of  judicial  decisions  would  operate. 

Evidence  of  a  recent  change  of  attitude  to 
ward  laws  involving  an  exercise  of  the  police 
power  is  found  in  the  subject-matter  of  three 


i88  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

cases  much  criticized  by  Roosevelt.  In  Sarah 
Knisley  vs.  Pratt,  148  N.Y.  372,  decided  in 
February,  1896,  the  court  held  that  a  woman 
employee  who  had  assumed  the  risk  of  operat 
ing  a  dangerous  machine,  not  safeguarded  as 
the  law  required,  could  not  recover  for  the  loss 
of  an  arm.  This  case  was  overruled  in  Fitz- 
water  vs.  Warren,  206  N.Y.  355,  decided  in 
October,  1912.  The  court  held  in  this  case  that 
a  servant  does  not  assume  the  risk  caused  by  a 
master's  violation  of  the  law. 

In  People  vs.  Williams,  189  N.Y.  131,  decided 
in  June,  1907,  the  court  held  unconstitutional 
a  provision  in  the  Labor  Law  of  New  York 
which  prohibited  the  employment  of  an  adult 
female  in  a  factory  before  six  o'clock  in  the 
morning  or  after  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening. 
The  reason  given  was  that  it 

violates  the  constitutional  provisions  guaranteeing 
to  every  citizen  the  right  to  pursue  any  lawful  em 
ployment  in  a  lawful  manner,  and  is  discrimina 
tive  against  female  citizens  in  denying  to  them  equal 
rights  with  men  with  respect  to  liberty  of  person,  or 
of  contract.  It  cannot  be  upheld  as  a  proper  exercise 
of  the  police  power,  having  for  its  purpose  the  preser 
vation  of  the  health  of  female  citizens,  since  it  arbi 
trarily  takes  away  the  right  of  a  woman  to  labor  in 


RECALL  OF  JUDICIAL  DECISIONS    189 

a  factory  during  the  prohibited  hours  without  any 
reference  to  the  number  of  hours  of  such  labor  or  the 
healthfulness  of  the  employment. 

On  March  26,  1915,  the  Court  of  Appeals,  in 
People  vs.  Schweinler  Press,  214  N.Y.  395,  sus 
tained  a  similar  statute  providing  "that  no 
woman  shall  work  in  any  factory  in  the  State 
before  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  or  after  ten 
o'clock  in  the  evening,"  and  held  that  the  law 
entitled  "Period  of  rest  at  night  for  women" 
violated  no  provision  of  the  Federal  or  State 
Constitution. 

In  Ives  vs.  South  Buffalo  R.R.  Co.,  201  N.Y. 
271,  decided  March,  1911,  the  court  held  un 
constitutional,  under  both  Federal  and  State 
Constitutions,  a  provision  relating  to  "work 
men's  compensation  in  certain  dangerous  em 
ployments."  Among  other  things,  the  court  held 
that 

the  right  given  to  the  employee  by  this  statute  does 
not  preserve  to  the  employer  the  "due  process"  of 
law  guaranteed  by  the  Constitution,  for  it  authorizes 
the  taking  of  the  employer's  property  without  his 
consent  and  without  his  fault. 

The  State  Constitution  was  subsequently 
amended  to  obviate  the  difficulty  found  by  the 


190  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

court.  The  Federal  Constitution  remained  un- 
unchanged. 

In  Jenson  vs.  Southern  Pacific,  215  N.Y.  514, 
decided  in  July,  1915,  the  court  held  that  the 
Workmen's  Compensation  Law 

is  not  violative  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  of  the 
United  States  Constitution  for  taking  property  with 
out  due  process  of  law  .  .  .  and  is  a  valid  enactment 
within  the  police  power  of  the  State  for  the  promo 
tion  of  the  general  welfare. 

I  think  that  the  real  difference,  on  this  sub 
ject,  between  the  position  of  the  conservative 
of  open  mind  and  Roosevelt  is  not  so  much  the 
end  to  be  sought  as  the  method  to  pursue.  The 
conservative,  and  I  am  one,  thinks  it  wiser  to 
wait  for  public  opinion,  changing  as  it  does  with 
changing  conditions,  to  have  its  effect  upon  the 
judicial  mind;  or,  if  necessary,  to  resort  to  an 
amendment  of  the  Constitution,  State  or  Na 
tional.  Roosevelt,  impatient  to  reach  the  goal, 
desired  some  more  immediate  influence  of  pub 
lic  opinion  upon  this  class  of  judicial  decisions. 
That  he  is  lacking  in  respect  for  or  confidence 
in  our  judicial  system  is  not  true. 

In  his  special  message  of  January,  1908,  he 
said:  — 


RECALL  OF  JUDICIAL  DECISIONS    191 

Most  certainly  it  behooves  us  all  to  treat  with  the 
utmost  respect  the  high  office  of  judge;  and  our 
judges,  as  a  whole,  are  brave  and  upright  men  .  .  . 
the  judges  stand  in  character  and  service  above  all 
other  men  among  their  fellow  servants  of  the  public. 
There  is  all  the  greater  need  that  the  few  who  fail  in 
this  great  office,  who  fall  below  this  high  standard  of 
integrity,  of  wisdom,  of  sympathetic  understanding 
and  of  courage  should  have  their  eyes  opened  to  the 
needs  of  their  countrymen. 

Two  books  had  great  influence  upon  Roose 
velt  in  his  consideration  of  this  subject  which 
led  to  the  remedy  he  proposed  known  as  the 
"Recall  of  Judicial  Decisions."  One,  called 
"Moral  Overstrain,"  was  written  in  1906  by 
George  W.  Alger.  The  chapter  which  particu 
larly  attracted  Roosevelt's  attention  was  that 
on  "Some  Equivocal  Rights  of  Labor."  This 
states  the  wrongs  to  be  remedied.  The  case 
there  related  of  the  Knisley  girl  who  lost  her 
arm  in  a  machine  she  was  operating  was  the 
basis  of  Roosevelt's  story,  "Sarah  Knisley's 
Arm,"  printed  originally  in  "Collier's  Weekly," 
in  March,  1913. 

The  other  book,  which  recognized  the  danger  of 
the  misuse  of  power  by  the  courts,  was  "Legal 
Essays,"  by  James  Bradley  Thayer,  LL.D.,  late 


192  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

Weld  Professor  of  Law  in  Harvard  University, 
published  in  1908.  In  the  first  chapter  on 
"The  Origin  and  Scope  of  the  American  Doc 
trine  of  Constitutional  Law,"  prepared  in  1893, 
Professor  Thayer  proposes  this  question :  — 

How  did  our  American  doctrine,  which  allows  to 
the  judiciary  the  power  to  declare  legislative  acts 
unconstitutional,  and  to  treat  them  as  null,  come 
about,  and  what  is  the  true  scope  of  it? 

.    Later,  Professor  Thayer  says :  — 

'  When  at  last  this  power  of  the  judiciary  was  every 
where  established,  and  added  to  the  other  bulwarks 
of  our  written  constitutions,  how  was  the  power  to 
be  conceived  of? 

And  he  answers  the  question,  "Strictly  as  a 
judicial  one,"  and  then  goes  on  to  say:  — 

Again,  where  the  power  of  the  judiciary  did  have 
place,  its  whole  scope  was  this;  namely,  to  determine 
for  the  mere  purpose  of  deciding  a  litigated  question 
properly  submitted  to  the  court,  whether  a  particu 
lar  disputed  exercise  of  power  was  forbidden  by  the 
Constitution.  In  doing  this  the  court  was  so  to  dis 
charge  its  office  as  not  to  deprive  another  department 
of  any  of  its  proper  power,  or  to  limit  it  in  the  proper 
range  of  its  discretion.  Not  merely,  then,  do  these 
questions,  when  presenting  themselves  in  the  courts 
for  judicial  action,  call  for  a  peculiarly  large  method 
in  the  treatment  of  them,  but  especially  they  require 
an  allowance  to  be  made  by  the  judges  for  the  vast 


RECALL  OF  JUDICIAL  DECISIONS    193 

and  not  definable  range  of  legislative  power  and 
choice,  for  that  wide  margin  of  considerations  which 
address  themselves  only  to  the  practical  judgment 
of  a  legislative  body.  Within  that  margin,  as  among 
all  these  legislative  considerations,  the  constitutional 
lawmakers  must  be  allowed  a  free  foot.  In  so  far  as 
legislative  choice,  ranging  here  unfettered,  may  select 
one  form  of  action  or  another,  the  judges  must  not 
interfere,  since  their  question  is  a  naked  judicial  one. 
Moreover,  such  is  the  nature  of  this  particular 
judicial  question  that  the  preliminary  determination 
by  the  legislature  is  a  fact  of  very  great  importance, 
since  the  constitutions  expressly  entrust  to  the  legis 
lature  this  determination;  they  cannot  act  without 
making  it. 

And  he  makes  the  following  quotation  from 
5  Mass.  524,533:  — 

It  is  true  that  the  legislature,  in  consequence  of 
their  construction  of  the  constitution,  cannot  make 
laws  repugnant  to  it.  But  every  department  of  gov 
ernment,  invested  with  certain  constitutional  powers, 
must,  in  the  first  instance,  but  not  exclusively,  be  the 
judge  of  its  powers,  or  it  could  not  act.  And  certainly 
the  construction  of  the  constitution  by  the  legislature 
ought  to  have  great  weight,  and  not  be  overruled, 
unless  manifestly  erroneous. 

Roosevelt  was  particularly  impressed  by  the 
following  quotation  from  an  opinion  by  Mr. 
Chief  Justice  Tilghman,  of  Pennsylvania,  in 
1811:— - 


194  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

For  weighty  reasons,  it  has  been  assumed  as  a 
principle  in  constitutional  construction  by  the  Su 
preme  Court  of  the  United  States,  by  this  court, 
and  every  other  court  of  reputation  in  the  United 
States,  that  an  act  of  the  legislature  is  not  to  be 
declared  void  unless  the  violation  of  the  constitution 
is  so  manifest  as  to  leave  no  room  for  reasonable 
doubt. 

And  also  by  the  following  quotation  from  an 
opinion  by  Mr.  Justice  Charlton,  in  Georgia,  in 
1808,  upon  the  manner  in  which  this  power 
should  be  exercised  by  the  court:  — 

No  nice  doubts,  no  critical  exposition  of  words,  no 
abstract  rules  of  interpretation,  suitable  in  a  contest 
between  individuals,  ought  to  be  resorted  to  in  decid 
ing  on  the  constitutional  operation  of  a  statute.  This 
violation  of  a  constitutional  right  ought  to  be  as 
obvious  to  the  comprehension  of  every  one  as  an 
axiomatic  truth,  as  that  the  parts  are  equal  to  the 
whole.  I  shall  endeavor  to  illustrate  this:  the  first 
section  of  the  second  article  of  the  constitution  de 
clares  that  the  executive  function  shall  be  vested  in 
the  governor.  Now,  if  the  legislature  were  to  vest 
the  executive  power  in  a  standing  committee  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  every  mind  would  at  once 
perceive  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  statute.  The 
judiciary  would  be  authorized  without  hesitation  to 
declare  the  act  unconstitutional.  But  when  it  remains 
doubtful  whether  the  legislature  have  or  have  not 
trespassed  on  the  constitution,  a  conflict  ought  to  be 


RECALL  OF  JUDICIAL  DECISIONS    195 

avoided,  because  there  is  a  possibility  in  such  a  case 
of  the  constitution  being  with  the  legislature. 

And  again  by  the  following  quotation  from 
an  opinion  by  Chancellor  Waties,  of  South 
Carolina,  in  1812,  who  said  upon  this  subject:  — 

.  .  .  The  interference  of  the  judiciary  with  legisla 
tive  acts,  if  frequent  or  on  dubious  grounds,  might 
occasion  so  great  a  jealousy  of  this  power  and  so 
general  a  prejudice  against  it  as  to  lead  to  measures 
ending  in  the  total  overthrow  of  the  independence 
of  the  judges,  and  so  of  the  best  preservative  of  their 
constitution.  The  validity  of  the  law  ought  not,  then, 
to  be  questioned  unless  it  is  so  obviously  repugnant 
to  the  constitution  that,  when  pointed  out  by  the 
judges,  all  men  of  sense  and  reflection  in  the  commu 
nity  may  perceive  the  repugnancy.  By  such  a  cautious 
exercise  of  this  judicial  check,  no  jealousy  of  it  will 
be  excited,  the  public  confidence  in  it  will  be  pro 
moted,  and  its  salutary  effects  be  justly  and  fully 
appreciated. 

I  am  not  contending  that  Roosevelt  was 
right  in  his  conclusions,  with  which  I  did  not 
agree,  but  am  merely  reciting  the  processes 
through  which  his  mind  passed  in  reaching 
them,  and  attempting  to  make  clear  the  fact 
that  they  were  the  result  of  long  reflection  and 
careful  investigation. 


CHAPTER  V 

ROOSEVELT'S  PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS  — 
CONCLUSION 

IN  what  I  have  written,  I  have  sought  to 
lay  the  foundation  for  certain  conclusions  in 
regard  to  the  character  and  accomplishments  of 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  to  which  I  will  add  the 
reasons  as  I  see  them  for  his  great  popularity 
and  extraordinary  success  in  so  many  distinct 
fields  of  human  endeavor.  In  tracing  his  his 
tory,  I  think  I  have  demonstrated  that  his 
political  advancement  was  in  no  way  due  to 
anything  he  consciously  did  with  that  end  in 
view. 

He  was  never  an  extreme  party  man.  I 
think  that  "Harper's  Weekly,"  which  I  have 
quoted,  stated  his  position  correctly,  in  1883, 
when  it  said:  — 

Mr.  Roosevelt  holds  the  soundest  views  upon  pub 
lic  questions  with  the  feeling  that  the  Republican 
party  is  the  organization  which,  from  its  traditional 
principles  and  the  character  of  its  membership,  is 
more  likely  wisely  to  secure  the  public  welfare. 

Roosevelt  has  always  regarded  a  party  as  a 


C»i> aright  by  Campbell  Stw/io,  1915 
MR.   AND    MRS.    ROOSEVELT    WITH    THEIR    GRANDSON 
RICHARD   DERBY,  JR. 


PERSONAL   CHARACTERISTICS       197 

means  to  an  end,  and  when,  in  his  opinion,  it 
ceases  to  be  an  instrument  for  good,  he  is  ready 
to  cast  it  aside.  That  is  a  very  different  feeling 
from  that  to  which  I  have  referred  of  the  man 
to  whom  "it  was  little  short  of  treason  to  vote 
any  other  than  the  Republican  ticket." 

Roosevelt  has  always  been  a  radical  "demo 
crat."  Of  course,  I  use  the  word  in  its  broader 
sense  and  not  as  the  designation  of  a  party. 
He  said  so  in  his  Oxford  address.  He  once  said 
to  me  at  Oyster  Bay  after  he  had  finished  his 
term  as  President:  "I  am  a  democrat  and  a 
radical.  I  like  to  go  to  the  Lodge  here  and  sit 
on  the  benches  while  my  cousin's  gardener  pre 
sides." 

Earlier  in  this  sketch  I  introduced  Roose 
velt's  speech  seconding  the  nomination  of  Mr. 
Lynch  as  temporary  chairman  of  the  1884  Na 
tional  Convention,  in  which  he  said:  — 

Let  each  man  stand  accountable  to  those  whom  he 
represents  for  his  vote.  Let  no  man  be  able  to  shelter 
himself  behind  the  shield  of  his  State.  What  we  say 
is,  that  one  of  the  cardinal  doctrines  of  the  American 
political  government  is  the  accountability  of  each 
man  to  his  people. 

Here  we  find,  over  thirty  years  ago,  the  same 
idea  that  later  found  expression  in  the  direct 


198  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

primary,  the  initiative  and  the  referendum,  the 
direct  and  immediate  connection  of  the  people 
with  the  thing  done,  as  in  the  case  of  the  recall 
of  judicial  decisions. 

He  always  spoke  of  himself  with  extreme 
modesty.  I  remember  that  at  the  twenty-fifth 
anniversary  of  the  graduation  of  our  class,  while 
he  was  President,  he  said  in  substance  that  he 
was  not  a  great  man,  that  there  were  very  few 
such,  but  that  he  had  improved  his  opportuni 
ties.  For  example,  said  he:  — 

Many  other  men  have  had  the  same  experience  in 
the  West  and  could  have  raised  a  regiment  in  the 
Spanish  War  as  I  did,  but  they  did  not.  I  was  afraid 
at  first  that  they  would  call  the  regiment  "Teddy's 
Terrors,"  which  would  have  covered  it  with  ridicule. 
I  did  not  want  any  name,  but  "Rough  Riders"  was 
the  one  that  finally  stuck. 

It  was  a  necessity  to  get  this  regiment  into  action, 
otherwise  it  would  have  been  laughed  at.  We  came 
near  being  left  behind,  and  I  admit  that  I  pulled  every 
wire  in  sight  to  get  that  regiment  to  Cuba,  and  we 
got  there.  If  we  had  not,  I  should  never  have  been 
President. 

Speaking  of  the  Panama  matter,  he  said:  "I 
had  to  act  quickly,  and  I  did  —  and  we  are  now 
building  the  canal."  Criticism  of  his  action  did 
not  create  in  his  mind  any  doubt  as  to  its 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS       199 

righteousness.    Speaking  in  Denver  in  1905,  he 
said:  — 

It  is  perhaps  unnecessary  for  me  to  say  that  I  am 
perfectly  aware  that  many  most  admirable  gentle 
men  disagree  with  me  in  my  action  toward  the  Pan 
ama  Canal.  But  I  am  in  a  wholly  unrepentant  frame 
of  mind  in  reference  thereto.  The  ethical  conception 
upon  which  I  acted  was  that  I  did  not  intend  that 
Uncle  Sam  should  be  held  up  while  he  was  doing  a 
great  work  for  himself  and  all  mankind. 

It  seems  to  be  agreed  that  the  responsibility 
for  the  settlement  of  the  difficulties  between 
Colombia  and  Panama,  which  made  possible 
the  building  of  the  canal,  was  assumed  by 
President  Roosevelt.  John  Hay  was  then  Sec 
retary  of  State.  From  Mr.  Hay's  letters  I  make 
the  following  quotations :  — 

December  8,  1903,  he  wrote  to  Mr.  James 
Ford  Rhodes :  — 

It  is  hard  for  me  to  understand  how  any  one  can 
criticize  our  action  in  Panama  on  the  grounds  upon 
which  it  is  ordinarily  attacked.  The  matter  came  on 
us  with  amazing  celerity.  We  had  to  decide  on  the 
instant  whether  we  would  take  possession  of  the 
ends  of  the  railroad  and  keep  the  traffic  clear,  or 
whether  we  would  stand  back  and  let  those  gentle 
men  cut  each  other's  throats  for  an  indefinite  time, 
and  destroy  whatever  remnant  of  our  property  and 
our  interests  we  had  there.  I  had  no  hesitation  as  to 


200  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  proper  course  to  take,  and  have  had  no  doubt  of 
the  propriety  of  it  since. 

January  20,  1904,  to  Professor  George  P. 
Fisher,  of  Yale  University:  — 

Some  of  our  greatest  scholars,  in  their  criticisms  of 
public  life,  suffer  from  the  defect  of  arguing  from 
pure  reason  and  taking  no  account  of  circumstances. 
While  I  agree  that  no  circumstances  can  ever  justify 
a  Government  in  doing  wrong,  the  question  as  to 
whether  the  Government  has  acted  rightly  or  wrongly 
can  never  be  justly  judged  without  the  circumstances 
being  considered.  I  am  sure  that  if  the  President  had 
acted  differently  when,  the  jd  of  November,  he  was 
confronted  by  a  critical  situation  which  might  easily 
have  turned  to  disaster,  the  attacks  which  are  now 
made  on  him  would  have  been  ten  times  more  viru 
lent  and  more  effective.  He  must  have  done  exactly 
as  he  did,  or  the  only  alternative  would  have  been 
an  indefinite  duration  of  bloodshed  and  devastation 
through  the  whole  extent  of  the  Isthmus.  It  was  a 
time  to  act  and  not  to  theorize,  and  my  judgment  at 
least  is  clear  that  he  acted  rightly. 

Roosevelt  utilized  to  the  utmost  every  oppor 
tunity;  for  example,  he  spent  some  time  on  his 
ranch.  This  was  a  very  common  experience. 
Many  men  have  done  the  same  thing,  but  the 
experience  in  Roosevelt's  case  led  to  the  writing 
of  the  "Winning  of  the  West"  by  American 
pioneer  explorers.  That  was  not  all:  it  led  to 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS      201 

the  writing  of  several  most  interesting  books  on 
frontier  life,  and  then  to  the  forming  of  the 
Rough  Riders  in  the  Cuban  War  which,  Roose 
velt  said,  made  him  President.  Of  course,  I 
should  qualify  this;  if  the  Rough  Riders  had 
not  made  Roosevelt  President,  some  other  influ 
ence  would.  What  made  him  President  was  the 
cumulative  force  of  his  achievements  brought 
into  a  high  light  through  picturesque  circum 
stances  made  possible  by  his  unique  personality. 
I  do  not  find  any  evidence  that  Roosevelt 
became  a  politician  after  he  became  President. 
I  think  that  enough  can  be  found  in  what  I 
have  written  to  demonstrate  my  right  to  this 
belief.  No  politician  would  have  invited  Booker 
Washington  to  the  White  House  to  dinner. 
No  politician  would  at  the  same  time  have 
denounced  the  abuses  tolerated  or  practiced  by 
organized  capital  and  organized  labor.  No  poli 
tician  would  have  discharged  the  negro  regi 
ment  at  Brownsville,  or  been  so  regardless  of 
the  amenities  in  dealing  with  Congress,  an  er 
ror  and  a  weakness,  but  not  the  error  of  a  self- 
seeking  man.  We  often  heard  when  Roosevelt 
was  filling  out  McKinley's  unexpired  term  that 
labor  was  against  him,  that  capital  was  against 


202  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

him,  that  the  politicians  were  against  him;  but 
when  in  1904  the  votes  were  counted,  it  be 
came  quite  apparent  that  the  people,  or  most 
of  them,  were  with  him.  The  fact  is  they  be 
lieved  in  him.  Of  course,  it  must  be  remem 
bered  that  Roosevelt  had  a  most  extraordinary 
personality.  He  had,  I  think,  more  genuine 
sympathy  with  more  classes  of  people  than 
any  man  ever  in  public  life  in  this  country.  I 
can  best  illustrate  what  I  mean  by  two  stories, 
both  of  which  I  heard  him  tell. 

It  seems  that  when  he  was  hunting  in  Colo 
rado  several  years  ago,  he  met  a  cowboy  who 
had  been  with  him  with  the  Rough  Riders  in 
Cuba. 

The  man  came  up  to  speak  to  Roosevelt,  and 
said,  "Mr.  President,  I  have  been  in  jail  a  year 
for  killing  a  gentleman." 

"How  did  you  do  it?"  asked  the  President, 
meaning  to  inquire  as  to  the  circumstances. 

"Thirty-eight  on  a  forty-five  frame,"  replied 
the  man,  thinking  that  the  only  interest  the 
President  had  was  that  of  a  comrade  who 
wanted  to  know  with  what  kind  of  a  tool  the 
trick  was  done.  Now,  I  will  venture  to  say  that 
to  no  other  President,  from  Washington  down 


PERSONAL   CHARACTERISTICS      203 

to  and  including  Wilson,  would  the  man-killer 
have  made  that  response.  This  same  live  sym 
pathy  existed  between  Roosevelt  and  every  class 
of  men  with  whom  he  ever  came  in  contact, 
and  he  has  come  in  contact  with  all  classes  from 
kings  and  princes  to  Digger  Indians. 

Another  old  comrade,  sure  of  his  sympathy, 
wrote  from  a  jail  in  Arizona:  — 

DEAR  COLONEL: 

I  am  in  trouble.  I  shot  a  lady  in  the  eye,  but  I  did 
not  intend  to  hit  the  lady;  I  was  shooting  at  my  wife. 

Any  one  who  wants  to  get  some  adequate 
notion  of  Roosevelt  as  a  naturalist  and  lover  of 
nature  can  do  so  in  a  most  agreeable  way  by 
reading  "Camping  and  Tramping,"  by  John 
Burroughs.  This  book  was  written  in  1907,  and 
is  descriptive  of  Roosevelt's  trip  to  Yellowstone 
Park  in  1903.  The  introduction  should  not  be 
overlooked,  because  it  contains  a  most  charac 
teristic  letter  from  Roosevelt  to  Burroughs, 
written  in  1892  in  response  to  a  suggestion  from 
the  latter  that  the  European  forms  of  animal 
life  were,  as  a  rule,  larger  and  more  hardy  and 
prolific  than  the  corresponding  forms  in  this 
country,  with  which  statement  Roosevelt  takes 
issue. 


204  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

I  have  never  been  disturbed  [Burroughs  says]  by 
the  President's  hunting  trips.  It  is  to  such  men  as 
he  that  the  big  game  legitimately  belongs  —  men 
who  regard  it  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  naturalist 
as  well  as  from  that  of  the  sportsman,  who  are  inter 
ested  in  its  preservation,  and  who  share  with  the 
world  the  delight  they  experience  in  the  chase.  Such 
a  hunter  as  Roosevelt  is  as  far  removed  from  the 
game  butcher  as  day  is  from  night;  and  as  for  this 
killing  of  the  "Varmints,"  —  bears,  cougars,  and 
bobcats,  —  the  fewer  of  these  there  are  the  better 
for  the  useful  and  beautiful  game. 

In  the  trip  to  the  Yellowstone,  Burroughs 
said,  "I  was  able  to  help  him  identify  only  one 
new  bird;  all  the  other  birds  he  recognized  as 
quickly  as  I  did."  . 

The  following  story  illustrates  Roosevelt's 
tender  and  sympathetic  nature:  — 

Near  a  little  brown  school  house  [Burroughs 
writes],  by  the  railroad  track,  the  schoolma'am  and 
her  scholars  were  drawn  up  in  line  to  see  the  Presi 
dential  train  pass.  The  President  was  at  luncheon, 
but  leaving  the  table  rushed  to  the  platform  and 
waved  his  napkin.  When  he  came  back  he  said: 
"Those  children  wanted  to  see  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  I  could  not  disappoint  them. 
They  may  never  have  another  chance.  What  a  deep 
impression  such  things  make  when  we  are  young." 

There  was  a  reception  at  Medora  where 
Roosevelt's  old  ranch  was  located.  Shaking  one 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS      205 

man  by  the  hand,  he  said:  "You  once  mended 
my  gunlock  for  me,  —  put  on  a  new  hammer." 
"Yes,"  said  the  old  chap,  "I'm  the  man,  Mr. 
President."  "Hell-Roaring  Bill  Jones"  was 
missing,  he  began  to  celebrate  so  early  that  he 
was  "all  in"  before  the  train  arrived. 

What  other  hunter  in  Africa  would  have  had 
a  "pigskin  library"  and  have  given  the  reason 
for  the  presence  of  every  book  in  it?  He  was  a 
constant  surprise,  even  to  those  who  knew  him 
best,  in  some  manifestation  of  his  activity.  I 
remember  that  one  of  my  brothers  wrote  an 
article  in  the  "Atlantic"  of  May,  1908,  entitled 
"Shall  We  Hunt  and  Fish  — The  Confessions 
of  a  Sentimentalist."  In  it  he  was  somewhat 
critical  of  Roosevelt's  views  of  hunting  as  ex 
pressed  in  "Outdoor  Pastimes  of  an  American 
Hunter"  in  which  Roosevelt  said,  "There  is  no 
need  to  exercise  much  patience  with  men  who 
protest  against  field  sports,  unless,  indeed,  they 
are  logical  vegetarians  of  the  flabbiest  Hindoo 
type."  I  knew  when  the  magazine  was  coming 
out,  and  on  the  day  bought  a  copy  on  my  way 
home  from  the  Capitol.  The  next  morning,  I 
went  to  the  White  House  on  some  errand,  and 
when  Roosevelt  came  out  of  his  office  to  make 


206  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  rounds  of  those  gathered  in  the  Cabinet 
room,  I  said,  when  he  got  along  to  me,  "Mr. 
President,  here  is  an  article  written  by  a 
brother  of  mine  in  which  he  throws  some  stones 
at  you."  "Oh!"  said  Roosevelt,  "I  have  read 
the  article  and  agree  with  a  good  deal  of  it — • 
but,"  said  he,  "you  know  you  must  always 
have  fresh  meat  in  camp."  He  had  read  it  before 
I  had. 

He  always  invited  confidence  and  was  most 
delicate  and  sympathetic  in  his  response  to  any 
expression  of  sentiment.  I  remember  that  once 
I  sent  him  a  letter  my  mother  had  written  me, 
referring  to  a  recent  message  of  his,  of  which 
the  following  is  a  copy:  — 

Letter  from  my  Mother 

February  2,  1908. 

I  am  greatly  interested  in  reading  now  and  then 
a  little  about  you  in  the  papers.  How  perplexing 
everything  is,  how  difficult  to  know  the  right  course 
to  take.  I  read  with  deep  interest  the  President's 
message.  I  liked  it  all.  If  public  credit  is  to  be  shaken 
by  exposing  a  wrong,  it  ought  to  be  shaken ;  the  men 
guilty  of  wrong  are  the  ones  who  weaken  public 
credit,  not  the  President  who  exposes  them.  How 
corrupt  the  politicians  who  would  keep  up  public 
credit  at  any  cost.  The  right  is  the  "only  thing  that 
will  wash"  in  the  long  run,  so  President  Eliot  seems 


PERSONAL   CHARACTERISTICS      207 

to  think  about  the  President's  policy.  There  would 
be  no  difficulty  in  dying  game  in  defense  of  the  right, 
if  only  we  were  dead  sure  what  right  is.  It  is  a  help 
to  feel  that  our  views  of  right  must  help  along  the 
real  right  in  the  grand  economy  of  things.  To  be 
sure  that  you  are  not  swerved  in  your  conscientious 
decisions  by  any  thought  of  your  own  advantage  is 
the  great  thing,  the  only  thing  if  you  would  be  a  man 
"without  a  cross." 

Two  days  later  I  received  the  following  reply : 

THE  WHITE  HOUSE,  WASHINGTON, 
February  5,  1908. 

I  very  sincerely  appreciate  your  having  shown  me 
your  mother's  letter,  which  I  return  herewith.  No 
wonder  you  are  devoted  to  her.  What  she  says  in 
her  letter  represents,  I  am  confident,  the  principles 
for  which  this  nation  must  stand  if  it  is  to  endure.  I 
am  very  much  pleased  at  the  dear  lady's  high  spirit 
as  well  as  her  conscientiousness.  I  love  that  sentence 
of  hers,  "There  would  be  no  difficulty  in  dying  game, 
in  defense  of  the  right,  if  only  we  were  dead  sure 
what  right  is."  That  is  the  kind  of  sentence  I  like  to 
read. 

Letter  to  my  Mother 

6  Feb'y,  1908, 

1721  RHODE  ISLAND  AVENUE, 
WASHINGTON,  D.C. 

I  liked  your  letter  so  much  that  acting  (a  some 
what  unusual  thing  for  me)  a  little  on  impulse,  I  sent 
it  to  the  President  with  the  statement  that  it  was 


208  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

the  first  time  I  had  ever  shown  a  letter  of  yours  to 
another. 

His  note  in  reply  was  so  sympathetic  that  I  think 
it  will  interest  you. 

I  read  your  letter  and  the  President's  to  Slater 
[my  son,  a  boy  of  twelve].  He  said  of  yours,  —  "Gee, 
it  sounds  like  Abraham  Lincoln." 


Roosevelt  had  time  to  do  these  things.  Some 
times  apparently  superficial  signs  indicate  the 
great  qualities  that  lie  beneath.  I  was  looking 
over  his  autobiography  the  other  day,  and  the 
illustrations  interested  me.  They  did  not  so 
much  suggest  associations  with  the  great  men 
in  this  and  other  lands,  as  with  old  compan 
ions  in  the  Legislature  or  members  of  the  police 
force,  with  social  workers,  and  children  of  the 
slums;  and  when  Roosevelt  emerged  from  the 
atmosphere  of  kings  and  princes  in  Europe,  he 
sought  relief  by  telegraphing  for  Seth  Bullock 
and  his  wife  to  meet  him  in  London.  Seth  Bul 
lock  was  at  one  time  sheriff  in  the  Black  Hills 
district,  who,  the  first  time  he  met  Roosevelt, 
said  to  him  and  his  companions,  "You  see,  by 
your  looks  I  thought  you  were  some  kind  of  a 
tin-horn  gambling  outfit,  and  that  I  might  have 
to  keep  an  eye  on  you."  .This  man  later,  as 


PERSONAL   CHARACTERISTICS      209 

Roosevelt  has  said,  "became,  and  has  ever 
since  remained,  one  of  my  stanchest  and  most 
valued  friends,"  and  he  telegraphed  for  him 
because,  as  he  said,  "by  that  time  I  felt  that  I 
just  had  to  meet  my  own  people,  who  spoke 
my  neighborhood  dialect." 

This  is  all  real.  No  veneer  of  affectation  can 
stand  the  stress  of  thirty  years  of  public  life. 
Roosevelt  has  been  a  great  preacher  as  well  as  a 
great  performer,  and  the  combination  has  made 
him  an  immense  power  for  good  in  our  political, 
business,  and  social  life.  The  following  is  typi 
cal  of  much  that  he  said:  — 

I  wish  to  preach,  not  the  doctrine  of  ignoble  ease, 
but  the  doctrine  of  the  strenuous  life,  the  life  of  toil 
and  effort,  of  labor  and  strife;  to  preach  that  highest 
form  of  success  which  comes,  not  to  the  man  who 
desires  mere  easy  peace,  but  to  the  man  who  does 
not  shrink  from  danger,  from  hardship,  or  from  bitter 
toil,  and  who  out  of  these  wins  the  splendid  ultimate 
triumph. 

Far  better  it  is  to  dare  mighty  things,  to  win  glori 
ous  triumphs,  even  though  checkered  by  failure,  than 
to  take  rank  with  those  poor  spirits  who  neither  enjoy 
much  nor  suffer  much  because  they  live  in  the  gray 
twilight  that  knows  not  victory  or  defeat. 

Fine  expression  of  his  dauntless  spirit;  and, 
again:  — 


210  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

On  behalf  of  all  our  people,  on  behalf  no  less  of  the 
honest  man  of  means  than  of  the  honest  man  who 
earns  each  day's  livelihood  by  that  day's  sweat  of 
his  brow,  it  is  necessary  to  insist  upon  honesty  in 
business  and  politics  alike,  in  all  walks  of  life,  in  big 
things  and  in  little  things;  upon  just  and  fair  dealings 
as  between  man  and  man.  ...  In  the  work  we  of  this 
generation  are  in  there  is,  thanks  to  the  Almighty, 
no  danger  of  bloodshed  and  no  use  for  the  sword;  but 
there  is  grave  need  of  those  stern  qualities  shown 
alike  by  the  men  of  the  North  and  the  men  of  the 
South  in  the  dark  days  when  each  valiantly  battled 
for  the  light  as  it  was  given  him  to  see  the  light.  This 
spirit  should  be  our  spirit,  as  we  strive  to  bring  nearer 
the  day  when  greed  and  trickery  and  cunning  shall 
be  trampled  under  foot  by  those  who  fight  for  the 
righteousness  that  exalteth  a  nation. 

Sometimes,  in  almost  a  whimsical  manner, 
Roosevelt  impresses  a  lesson  to  be  derived  from 
some  Biblical  quotation.  In  "Character  and 
Success,"  for  example,  published  in  March, 
1900,  he  said:  — 

The  Bible  always  inculcates  the  need  of  the  posi 
tive  no  less  than  negative  virtues,  although  certain 
people  who  profess  to  teach  Christianity  are  apt  to 
dwell  wholly  on  the  negative;  we  are  bidden  not 
merely  to  be  harmless  as  doves,  but  also  as  wise  as 
serpents.  It  is  very  much  easier  to  carry  out  the  for 
mer  part  of  the  order  than  the  latter;  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  of  much  more  importance  for  the 
good  of  mankind  that  our  goodness  should  be  accom- 


PERSONAL   CHARACTERISTICS      211 

panied  by  wisdom  than  that  we  should  merely  be 
harmless.  If  with  the  serpent  wisdom  we  unite  the 
serpent  guile,  terrible  will  be  the  damage  we  do;  and 
if  with  the  best  of  intentions,  we  can  only  manage  to 
deserve  the  epithet  of  "harmless,"  it  is  hardly  worth 
while  to  have  lived  in  the  world  at  all. 

His  power  of  vigorous  statement  was  great. 
When  he  was  asked  to  abandon  certain  investi 
gations  as  to  the  alleged  violation  of  the  Anti- 
Trust  Law  which  were  said  to  implicate  some 
wealthy  contributors  to  the  campaign  fund  in 
the  Taft  campaign,  Roosevelt  wrote  Attorney- 
General  Bonaparte  as  follows:  — 

OYSTER  BAY,  NEW  YORK,  1908. 

.  .  .  What  a  scoundrel must  be!    If  he  comes 

to  you  again  I  shall  be  really  delighted  to  have  you 
tell  him  straight  from  me  that  the  investigation  will 
be  pressed  with  the  utmost  energy  to  a  conclusion, 
and  that  this  will  be  done  whether  his  clients  con 
tribute  a  million  for  the  election  of  Taft  or  a  million 
for  the  election  of  Bryan,  or  whether  they  fail  to 
contribute  a  cent  to  either  side.  I  would  really  like 
to  have  you  give  him  just  this  message  from  me,  and 
put  it  in  writing  if  you  desire. 

And  yet  he  is  a  man  of  the  most  lovable  quali 
ties.  A  Catholic  priest  once  said  he  had  sat  on 
the  platform  near  Roosevelt  at  some  meeting 
—  "The  man  had  not  spoken  three  minutes 


212  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

before  I  loved  him,  and  had  any  one  tried  to 
molest  him,  I  could  have  torn  him  to  pieces." 
Nor  is  there  anything  of  arrogance  about  him. 
He  never  claimed  to  be  preeminent  in  any  field 
of  human  endeavor.  He  never  laid  claim  to  any 
thing  but  doing  the  best  he  could;  he  freely  ad 
mitted  that  he  made  mistakes.  A  characteristic 
story  is  that  of  a  friend  who  took  him  to  task 
for  some  mistake  he  had  made  in  one  of  his  ap 
pointments:  "My  dear  sir,"  replied  the  Presi 
dent,  "where  you  know  of  one  mistake  I  have 
made,  I  know  of  ten." 

He  talked  with  a  freedom  that  fairly  took 
one's  breath  away.  I  remember  once  at  luncheon 
at  the  White  House,  in  speaking  of  two  men, 
both  of  whom  were  then  living  and  one  of  whom 
was  then  in  the  Senate,  he  said,  "I  think  that 
is  the  more  adroit  rascal." 

A  story  which  I  heard  of  Roosevelt  nearly  at 
first  hand,  and  which  I  believe  has  never  been 
in  print,  admirably  illustrates  his  great  cour 
age  or  lack  of  fear.  Mr.  Henry  White  told  it 
to  Senator  Lodge,  who  told  it  to  me.  It  seems 
that  Mr.  White  said  to  Roosevelt,  speaking  of 
his  being  shot  in  Milwaukee  "I  think  you  were 
foolhardy  to  make  a  speech  after  you  had  been 


PERSONAL   CHARACTERISTICS      213 

shot."  "Why,"  said  Roosevelt  in  reply,  "you 
know  I  did  n't  think  I  had  been  mortally 
wounded.  If  I  had  been  mortally  wounded,  I 
would  have  bled  from  the  lungs.  When  I  got 
into  the  motor  I  coughed  hard  three  times,  and 
put  my  hand  up  to  my  mouth;  as  I  did  not  find 
any  blood,  I  thought  that  I  was  not  seriously 
hurt,  and  went  on  with  my  speech." 

I  began  to  write  these  notes  in  November, 

1914,  and  continued    at    intervals    for  several 
months.    As  I  write  on  the  train  on  April  30, 

1915,  between    San   Francisco   and   Portland, 
Oregon,  I  have  just  been  reading  such  of  the 
testimony  as  is  reported  in  the  papers  in  the 
pending  libel  suit  brought  by  Mr.  Barnes,  of 
New   York,    against   Mr.    Roosevelt.1     I   find 
nothing  in  Roosevelt's  testimony  which  is  not 
perfectly  consistent  with  his  acts  and  speech 
for  the  past  twenty  years,  most  of  which  can 
be  found  recorded  in  his  autobiography.   When 
he  entered  public  life,  he  found  certain  condi 
tions;  he  dealt  with  them  as  best  he  could.   To 
have  refused  to  work  with  men  of  whose  every 
act  he  did  not  approve  would  have  meant  that 

1  The  jury  in  May,  1915,  brought  in  a  verdict  favorable  to 
Roosevelt. 


214  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

he  could  accomplish  nothing.  He  always  acted 
upon  the  adage  that  "  half  a  loaf  is  better  than 
no  bread."  As  he  wrote  in  1904: — 

A  man  who  goes  into  the  actual  battles  of  the 
political  world  must  prepare  himself  much  as  he 
would  for  the  struggle  in  any  other  branch  of  our  life. 
He  must  be  prepared  to  meet  men  of  far  lower  ideals 
than  his  own,  and  to  face  things,  not  as  he  would  wish 
them,  but  as  they  are.  He  must  not  lose  his  own  high 
ideal,  and  yet  he  must  face  the  fact  that  the  majority 
of  the  men  with  whom  he  must  work  have  lower 
ideals.  He  must  stand  firmly  for  what  he  believes, 
and  yet  he  must  realize  that  political  action,  to  be 
effective,  must  be  the  joint  action  of  many  men,  and 
that  he  must  sacrifice  somewhat  of  his  own  opinions 
to  those  of  his  associates  if  he  ever  hopes  to  see  his 
desires  take  practical  shape. 

Roosevelt  has  wisely  acted  upon  this  prin 
ciple.  In  the  fallibility  of  human  judgment,  he 
may  sometimes  have  gone  too  far  with  this 
man  or  that,  or  perhaps  not  far  enough,  but  his 
policy  has  not  changed. 

Whatever  many  of  his  friends  may  have 
wished,  Roosevelt  made  up  his  own  mind  in 
1912,  and  in  the  campaigns  that  followed  in 
flicted  and  received  many  wounds.  If  he  caused 
suffering,  he  endured  much  himself.  No  one 


PERSONAL   CHARACTERISTICS       215 

would  feel  more  keenly  than  he  the  loss  of  the 
political  sympathy  and  support  of  those  of  his 
old  friends  who  did  not  follow  him,  and  this  is  to 
me  convincing  proof  of  his  confidence  in  the 
righteousness  of  his  cause.  To  many  of  them,  to 
me,  I  am  sure,  parting  company  with  him  was 
deeply  painful.  I  count  it  among  the  sorrows  of 
my  life.  He  was  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the 
crusader;  he  believed  that  he  was  leading  a  great 
cause,  and  that  in  doing  so  he  was  serving  the 
best  interests  of  his  countrymen.  A  leader  on 
the  field  of  battle  sees  nothing  but  his  goal,  and 
in  his  progress  tramples  alike  on  friend  and  foe. 
Such  was  Roosevelt's  relation  to  the  conflict. 
This  is  the  reply  to  the  charge  that  he  wantonly 
maimed  and  bruised  many  of  his  former  asso 
ciates  who  differed  with  him  politically. 

Roosevelt  had  the  choice,  at  the  end  of  his 
presidential  term,  between  resting  upon  his 
accomplishments,  secure  in  the  position  of  first 
citizen  of  the  Republic  and  idolized  by  his 
countrymen,  and  again  entering  the  arena  of 
political  strife  to  battle  for  the  causes  he  be 
lieved  in.  He  chose  the  latter  course,  in  which 
personally  he  had  everything  to  lose  and  noth 
ing  to  gain.  "Spend  and  be  spent"  was  the 


216  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 

motto  emblazoned  on  his  shield,  which  was  al 
ways  found  in  the  forefront  of  battle.  Who  will 
say  that  he  should  or  could  have  followed  any 
other  course;  or,  with  our  poor  mortal  vision, 
that  in  the  end  his  countrymen  may  not  profit 
by  what  many  of  his  friends  then  regarded  as 
his  great  sacrifice? 

"In  the  long  fight  for  righteousness  the 
watchword  for  all  of  us  is, '  Spend  and  be  spent.' 
It  is  of  little  matter  whether  any  one  man  fails 
or  succeeds;  but  the  cause  shall  not  fail,  for  it  is 
the  cause  of  mankind." 


THE   END 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 

THE  RIGHT  OF  THE  PEOPLE  TO  RULE 

(An  Address  by  Theodore  Roosevelt  at  Carnegie  Hall,  New  York 
City,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Civic  Forum,  Wednesday  evening, 
March  20,  1912.) 

THE  great  fundamental  issue  now  before  the  Re 
publican  party  and  before  our  people  can  be  stated 
briefly.  It  is,  Are  the  American  people  fit  to  govern 
themselves,  to  rule  themselves,  to  control  them 
selves?  I  believe  they  are.  My  opponents  do  not. 
I  believe  in  the  right  of  the  people  to  rule.  I  believe 
that  the  majority  of  the  plain  people  of  the  United 
States  will,  day  in  and  day  out,  make  fewer  mistakes 
in  governing  themselves  than  any  smaller  class  or 
body  of  men,  no  matter  what  their  training,  will 
make  in  trying  to  govern  them.  I  believe,  again, 
that  the  American  people  are,  as  a  whole,  capable 
of  self-control  and  of  learning  by  their  mistakes. 
Our  opponents  pay  lip-loyalty  to  this  doctrine;  but 
they  show  their  real  beliefs  by  the  way  in  which  they 
champion  every  device  to  make  the  nominal  rule  of 
the  people  a  sham. 

I  have  scant  patience  with  this  talk  of  the  tyranny 
of  the  majority.  Whenever  there  is  tyranny  of  the 
majority,  I  shall  protest  against  it  with  all  my  heart 
and  soul.  But  we  are  to-day  suffering  from  the  tyr 
anny  of  minorities.  It  is  a  small  minority  that  is 


220  APPENDIX 

grabbing  our  coal  deposits,  our  water-powers,  and 
our  harbor  fronts.  A  small  minority  is  battening 
on  the  sale  of  adulterated  foods  and  drugs.  It  is  a 
small  minority  that  lies  behind  monopolies  and 
trusts.  It  is  a  small  minority  that  stands  behind  the 
present  law  of  master  and  servant,  the  sweat-shops, 
and  the  whole  calendar  of  social  and  industrial 
injustice.  It  is  a  small  minority  that  is  to-day  using 
our  convention  system  to  defeat  the  will  of  a  ma 
jority  of  the  people  in  the  choice  of  delegates  to 
the  Chicago  Convention.  The  only  tyrannies  from 
which  men,  women,  and  children  are  suffering  in  real 
life  are  the  tyrannies  of  minorities. 

If  the  majority  of  the  American  people  were  in 
fact  tyrannous  over  the  minority,  if  democracy  had 
no  greater  self-control  than  empire,  then  indeed  no 
written  words  which  our  forefathers  put  into  the 
Constitution  could  stay  that  tyranny. 

No  sane  man  who  has  been  familiar  with  the  gov 
ernment  of  this  country  for  the  last  twenty  years 
will  complain  that  we  have  had  too  much  of  the  rule 
of  the  majority.  The  trouble  has  been  a  far  differ 
ent  one  —  that,  at  many  times  and  in  many  locali 
ties,  there  have  held  public  office  in  the  States  and 
in  the  Nation  men  who  have,  in  fact,  served  not 
the  whole  people,  but  some  special  class  or  special 
interest.  I  am  not  thinking  only  of  those  special 
interests  which  by  grosser  methods,  by  bribery  and 
crime,  have  stolen  from  the  people.  I  am  thinking 
as  much  of  their  respectable  allies  and  figureheads, 
who  have  ruled  and  legislated  and  decided  as  if  in 
some  way  the  vested  rights  of  privilege  had  a  first 


APPENDIX  221 

mortgage  on  the  whole  United  States,  while  the  rights 
of  all  the  people  were  merely  an  unsecured  debt.  Am 
I  overstating  the  case?  Have  our  political  leaders 
always,  or  generally,  recognized  their  duty  to  the 
people  as  anything  more  than  a  duty  to  disperse  the 
mob,  see  that  the  ashes  are  taken  away,  and  distrib 
ute  patronage?  Have  our  leaders  always,  or  gener 
ally,  worked  for  the  benefit  of  human  beings,  to  in 
crease  the  prosperity  of  all  the  people,  to  give  to  each 
some  opportunity  of  living  decently  and  bringing  up 
his  children  well?  The  questions  need  no  answer. 

Now,  there  has  sprung  up  a  feeling  deep  in  the  hearts 
of  the  people  —  not  of  the  bosses  and  professional 
politicians,  not  of  the  beneficiaries  of  special  privilege 
—  a  pervading  belief  of  thinking  men  that  when  the 
majority  of  the  people  do  in  fact,  as  well  as  in  theory, 
rule,  then  the  servants  of  the  people  will  come  more 
quickly  to  answer  and  obey,  not  the  commands  of  the 
special  interests,  but  those  of  the  whole  people.  To 
reach  toward  that  end  the  Progressives  of  the  Repub 
lican  party  in  certain  States  have  formulated  certain 
proposals  for  change  in  the  form  of  the  state  govern 
ment —  certain  new  "checks  and  balances"  which 
may  check  and  balance  the  special  interests  and  their 
allies.  That  is  their  purpose.  Now,  turn  for  a  mo 
ment  to  their  proposed  methods. 

First,  there  are  the  "initiative  and  referendum," 
which  are  so  framed  that  if  the  Legislatures  obey 
the  command  of  some  special  interest,  and  obsti 
nately  refuse  the  will  of  the  majority,  the  majority 
may  step  in  and  legislate  directly.  No  man  would 
say  that  it  was  best  to  conduct  all  legislation  by 


222  APPENDIX 

direct  vote  of  the  people,  —  it  would  mean  the  loss 
of  deliberation,  of  patient  consideration,  —  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  no  one  whose  mental  arteries  have 
not  long  since  hardened  can  doubt  that  the  proposed 
changes  are  needed  when  the  Legislatures  refuse  to 
carry  out  the  will  of  the  people.  The  proposal  is  a 
method  to  reach  an  undeniable  evil.  Then  there  is 
the  recall  of  public  officers  —  the  principle  that  an 
officer  chosen  by  the  people  who  is  unfaithful  may 
be  recalled  by  vote  of  the  majority  before  he  finishes 
his  term.  I  will  speak  of  the  recall  of  judges  in  a 
moment,  —  leave  that  aside,  —  but  as  to  the  other 
officers,  I  have  heard  no  argument  advanced  against 
the  proposition,  save  that  it  will  make  the  public 
officer  timid  and  always  currying  favor  with  the 
mob.  That  argument  means  that  you  can  fool  all 
the  people  all  the  time,  and  is  an  avowal  of  disbelief 
in  democracy.  If  it  be  true,  —  and  I  believe  it  is 
not,  —  it  is  less  important  than  to  stop  those  pub 
lic  officers  from  currying  favor  with  the  interests. 
Certain  States  may  need  the  recall,  others  may  not; 
where  the  term  of  elective  office  is  short,  it  may  be 
quite  needless;  but  there  are  occasions  when  it  meets 
a  real  evil,  and  provides  a  needed  check  and  balance 
against  the  special  interests. 

Then  there  is  the  direct  primary,  —  the  real  one, 
not  the  New  York  one,  —  and  that,  too,  the  Pro 
gressives  offer  as  a  check  on  the  special  interests. 
Most  clearly  of  all  does  it  seem  to  me  that  this 
change  is  wholly  good  —  for  every  State.  The  sys 
tem  of  party  government  is  not  written  in  our  Con 
stitutions,  but  it  is  none  the  less  a  vital  and  essential 


APPENDIX  223 

part  of  our  form  of  government.  In  that  system 
the  party  leaders  should  serve  and  carry  out  the  will 
of  their  own  party.  There  is  no  need  to  show  how 
far  that  theory  is  from  the  facts,  or  to  rehearse  the 
vulgar  thieving  partnerships  of  the  corporations  and 
the  bosses,  or  to  show  how  many  times  the  real 
government  lies  in  the  hands  of  the  boss,  protected 
from  the  commands  and  revenge  of  the  voters  by  his 
puppets  in  office  and  the  power  of  patronage.  We 
need  not  be  told  how  he  is  thus  entrenched  nor  how 
hard  he  is  to  overthrow.  The  facts  stand  out  in  the 
history  of  nearly  every  State  in  the  Union.  They  are 
blots  on  our  political  system.  The  direct  primary 
will  give  the  voters  a  method  ever  ready  to  use,  by 
which  the  party  leader  shall  be  made  to  obey  their 
command.  The  direct  primary,  if  accompanied  by  a 
stringent  corrupt  practices  act,  will  help  break  up  the 
corrupt  partnership  of  corporations  and  politicians. 

My  opponents  charge  that  two  things  in  my  pro 
gramme  are  wrong  because  they  intrude  into  the 
sanctuary  of  the  judiciary.  The  first  is  the  recall  of 
judges;  and  the  second,  the  review  by  the  people 
of  judicial  decisions  on  certain  constitutional  ques 
tions.  I  have  said  again  and  again  that  I  do  not 
advocate  the  recall  of  judges  in  all  States  and  in  all 
communities.  In  my  own  State  I  do  not  advocate 
it  or  believe  it  to  be  needed,  for  in  this  State  our 
trouble  lies  not  with  corruption  on  the  bench,  but 
with  the  effort  by  the  honest  but  wrong-headed 
judges  to  thwart  the  people  in  their  struggle  for  social 
justice  and  fair-dealing.  The  integrity  of  our  judges 
from  Marshall  to  White  and  Holmes  —  and  to  Cullen 


224  APPENDIX 

and  many  others  in  our  own  State  —  is  a  fine  page 
of  American  history.  But  —  I  say  it  soberly  —  de 
mocracy  has  a  right  to  approach  the  sanctuary  of 
the  courts  when  a  special  interest  has  corruptly  found 
sanctuary  there;  and  this  is  exactly  what  has  hap 
pened  in  some  of  the  States  where  the  recall  of  the 
judges  is  a  living  issue.  I  would  far  more  willingly 
trust  the  whole  people  to  judge  such  a  case  than  some 
special  tribunal  —  perhaps  appointed  by  the  same 
power  that  chose  the  judge  —  if  that  tribunal  is  not 
itself  really  responsible  to  the  people  and  is  ham 
pered  and  clogged  by  the  technicalities  of  impeach 
ment  proceedings. 

I  have  stated  that  the  courts  of  the  several  States 
—  not  always  but  often  —  have  construed  the  "due 
process"  clause  of  the  State  Constitutions  as  if  it 
prohibited  the  whole  people  of  the  State  from  adopt 
ing  methods  of  regulating  the  use  of  property  so  that 
human  life,  particularly  the  lives  of  the  working- 
men,  shall  be  safer,  freer,  and  happier.  No  one  can 
successfully  impeach  this  statement.  I  have  in 
sisted  that  the  true  construction  of  "due  process" 
is  that  pronounced  by  Justice  Holmes  in  delivering 
the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  when  he  said:  "The  police  power 
extends  to  all  the  great  public  needs.  It  may  be  put 
forth  in  aid  of  what  is  sanctioned  by  usage,  or  held 
by  the  prevailing  morality  or  strong  and  preponder 
ant  opinion  to  be  greatly  and  immediately  necessary 
to  the  public  welfare." 

I  insist  that  the  decision  of  the  New  York  Court  of 
Appeals  in  the  Ives  case,  which  set  aside  the  will  of 


APPENDIX  225 

the  majority  of  the  people  as  to  the  compensation 
of  injured  workmen  in  dangerous  trades,  was  intoler 
able  and  based  on  a  wrong  political  philosophy.  I 
urge  that  in  such  cases  where  the  courts  construe  the 
"due  process"  clause  as  if  property  rights,  to  the 
exclusion  of  human  rights,  had  a  first  mortgage  on  the 
Constitution,  the  people  may,  after  sober  delibera 
tion,  vote,  and  finally  determine,  whether  the  law 
which  the  court  set  aside  shall  be  valid  or  not.  By 
this  method  can  be  clearly  and  finally  ascertained 
the  preponderant  opinion  of  the  people  which  Justice 
Holmes  makes  the  test  of  "due  process"  in  the  case 
of  laws  enacted  in  the  exercise  of  the  police  power. 
The  ordinary  methods  now  in  vogue  of  amending 
the  Constitution  have  in  actual  practice  proved 
wholly  inadequate  to  secure  justice  in  such  cases  with 
reasonable  speed,  and  cause  intolerable  delay  and 
injustice,  and  those  who  stand  against  the  changes 
I  propose  are  champions  of  wrong  and  injustice,  and 
of  tyranny  by  the  wealthy  and  the  strong  over  the 
weak  and  the  helpless. 

So  that  no  man  may  misunderstand  me,  let  me 
recapitulate:  — 

(1)  I  am  not  proposing  anything  in  connection 
with  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  or 
with  the  Federal  Constitution. 

(2)  I  am  not  proposing  anything  having  any  con 
nection  with  ordinary  suits,  civil  or  criminal,  as  be 
tween  individuals. 

(3)!  am  not  speaking  of  the  recall  of  judges. 
(4)  I  am  proposing  merely  that  in  a  certain  class  of 
cases  involving  the  police  power,  when  a  state  court 


226  APPENDIX 

has  set  aside  as  unconstitutional  a  law  passed  by  the 
Legislature  for  the  general  welfare,  the  question  of 
the  validity  of  the  law  —  which  should  depend,  as 
Justice  Holmes  so  well  phrases  it,  upon  the  prevailing 
morality  or  preponderant  opinion  —  be  submitted 
for  final  determination  to  a  vote  of  the  people,  taken 
after  due  time  for  consideration.  And  I  contend  that 
the  people,  in  the  nature  of  things,  must  be  better 
judges  of  what  is  the  preponderant  opinion  than  the 
courts,  and  that  the  courts  should  not  be  allowed  to 
reverse  the  political  philosophy  of  the  people.  My 
point  is  well  illustrated  by  a  recent  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  holding  that  the  court  would  not 
take  jurisdiction  of  a  case  involving  the  constitution 
ality  of  the  initiative  and  referendum  laws  of  Oregon. 
The  ground  of  the  decision  was  that  such  a  question 
was  not  judicial  in  its  nature,  but  should  be  left  for 
determination  to  the  other  coordinate  departments 
of  the  Government.  Is  it  not  equally  plain  that  the 
question  whether  a  given  social  policy  is  for  the  pub 
lic  good  is  not  of  a  judicial  nature,  but  should  be 
settled  by  the  Legislature,  or  in  the  final  instance  by 
the  people  themselves? 

The  President  of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Taft, 
devoted  most  of  a  recent  speech  to  criticism  of  this 
proposition.  He  says  that  it  "is  utterly  without 
merit  or  utility,  and,  instead  of  being  ...  in  the  in 
terest  of  all  the  people,  and  of  the  stability  of  pop 
ular  government,  is  sowing  the  seeds  of  confusion 
and  tyranny."  (By  this  he,  of  course,  means  the 
tyranny  of  the  majority,  that  is,  the  tyranny  of  the 
American  people  as  a  whole.)  He  also  says  that  my 


APPENDIX  227 

proposal  (which,  as  he  rightly  sees,  is  merely  a  pro 
posal  to  give  the  people  a  real,  instead  of  only  a 
nominal,  chance  to  construe  and  amend  a  State  Con 
stitution  with  reasonable  rapidity)  would  make  such 
amendment  and  interpretation  "  depend  on  the  fever 
ish,  uncertain,  and  unstable  determination  of  suc 
cessive  votes  on  different  laws  by  temporary  and 
changing  majorities";  and  that  "it  lays  the  axe  at 
the  root  of  the  tree  of  well-ordered  freedom,  and  sub 
jects  the  guarantees  of  life,  liberty,  and  property 
without  remedy  to  the  fitful  impulse  of  a  temporary 
majority  of  an  electorate." 

This  criticism  is  really  less  a  criticism  of  my  pro 
posal  than  a  criticism  of  all  popular  government.  It 
is  wholly  unfounded,  unless  it  is  founded  on  the 
belief  that  the  people  are  fundamentally  untrust 
worthy.  If  the  Supreme  Court's  definition  of  "  due 
process"  in  relation  to  the  police  power  is  sound,  then 
an  act  of  the  Legislature  to  promote  the  collective 
interests  of  the  community  must  be  valid  if  it  em 
bodies  a  policy  held  by  the  prevailing  morality  or  a 
preponderant  opinion  to  be  necessary  to  the  public 
welfare.  This  is  the  question  that  I  propose  to  sub 
mit  to  the  people.  How  can  the  prevailing  moral 
ity  or  a  preponderant  opinion  be  better  and  more 
exactly  ascertained  than  by  a  vote  of  the  people? 
The  people  must  know  better  than  the  court  what 
their  own  morality  and  their  own  opinion  is.  I  ask 
that  you,  here,  you  and  the  others  like  you,  you  the 
people,  be  given  the  chance  to  state  your  own  views 
of  justice  and  public  morality,  and  not  sit  meekly 
by  and  have  your  views  announced  for  you  by  well- 


228  APPENDIX 

meaning  adherents  of  outworn  philosophies,  who 
exalt  the  pedantry  of  formulas  above  the  vital  needs 
of  human  life. 

The  object  I  have  in  view  could  probably  be  ac 
complished  by  an  amendment  of  the  State  Consti 
tutions  taking  away  from  the  courts  the  power  to 
review  the  Legislature's  determination  of  a  policy 
of  social  justice,  by  denning  "due  process  of  law" 
in  accordance  with  the  views  expressed  by  Justice 
Holmes  for  the  Supreme  Court.  But  my  proposal 
seems  to  me  more  democratic  and,  I  may  add,  less 
radical.  For  under  the  method  I  suggest  the  people 
may  sustain  the  court  as  against  the  Legislature, 
whereas,  if  "due  process"  were  defined  in  the  Con 
stitution,  the  decision  of  the  Legislature  would  be 
final. 

Mr.  Taft's  position  is  the  position  that  has  been 
held  from  the  beginning  of  our  Government,  although 
not  always  so  openly  held,  by  a  large  number  of  repu 
table  and  honorable  men  who,  down  at  bottom,  dis 
trust  popular  government,  and,  when  they  must 
accept  it,  accept  it  with  reluctance,  and  hedge  it 
around  with  every  species  of  restriction  and  check 
and  balance,  so  as  to  make  the  power  of  the  people  as 
limited  and  as  ineffective  as  possible.  Mr.  Taft  fairly 
defines  the  issue  when  he  says  that  our  Government 
is  and  should  be  a  government  of  all  the  people  by  a 
representative  part  of  the  people.  This  is  an  excellent 
and  moderate  description  of  an  oligarchy.  It  defines 
our  Government  as  a  government  of  all  the  people  by 
a  few  of  the  people.  Mr.  Taft,  in  his  able  speech,  has 
made  what  is  probably  the  best  possible  presentation 


APPENDIX  229 

of  the  case  for  those  who  feel  in  this  manner.  Essen 
tially  this  view  differs  only  in  its  expression  from  the 
view  nakedly  set  forth  by  one  of  his  supporters, 
Congressman  Campbell.  Congressman  Campbell,  in 
a  public  speech  in  New  Hampshire,  in  opposing  the 
proposition  to  give  the  people  real  and  effective  con 
trol  over  all  their  servants,  including  the  judges, 
stated  that  this  was  equivalent  to  allowing  an  appeal 
from  the  umpire  to  the  bleachers.  Doubtless  Con 
gressman  Campbell  was  not  himself  aware  of  the 
cynical  truthfulness  with  which  he  was  putting  the 
real  attitude  of  those  for  whom  he  spoke.  But  it  un 
questionably  is  their  real  attitude.  Mr.  Campbell's 
conception  of  the  part  the  American  people  should 
play  in  self-government  is  that  they  should  sit  on 
the  bleachers  and  pay  the  price  of  admission,  but 
should  have  nothing  to  say  as  to  the  contest  which 
is  waged  in  the  arena  by  the  professional  politicians. 
Apparently  Mr.  Campbell  ignores  the  fact  that  the 
American  people  are  not  mere  onlookers  at  a  game, 
that  they  have  a  vital  stake  in  the  contest,  and  that 
democracy  means  nothing  unless  they  are  able  and 
willing  to  show  that  they  are  their  own  masters. 

I  am  not  speaking  jokingly,  nor  do  I  mean  to  be 
unkind;  for  I  repeat  that  many  honorable  and  well- 
meaning  men  of  high  character  take  this  view,  and 
have  taken  it  from  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the 
Nation.  Essentially  this  view  is  that  the  Constitu 
tion  is  a  strait-jacket  to  be  used  for  the  control  of  an 
unruly  patient  —  the  people.  Now,  I  hold  that  this 
view  is  not  only  false  but  mischievous,  that  our 
Constitutions  are  instruments  designed  to  secure 


230  APPENDIX 

justice  by  securing  the  deliberate  but  effective  ex 
pression  of  the  popular  will;  that  the  checks  and 
balances  are  valuable  as  far,  and  only  so  far,  as  they 
accomplish  that  deliberation;  and  that  it  is  a  warped 
and  unworthy  and  improper  construction  of  our  form 
of  government  to  see  in  it  only  a  means  of  thwarting 
the  popular  will  and  of  preventing  justice.  Mr.  Taft 
says  that  "every  class"  should  have  a  "voice"  in  the 
government.  That  seems  to  me  a  very  serious  mis 
conception  of  the  American  political  situation.  The 
real  trouble  with  us  is  that  some  classes  have  had  too 
much  voice.  One  of  the  most  important  of  all  the 
lessons  to  be  taught  and  to  be  learned  is  that  a  man 
should  vote,  not  as  a  representative  of  a  class,  but 
merely  as  a  good  citizen,  whose  prime  interests  are 
the  same  as  those  of  all  other  good  citizens.  The 
belief  in  different  classes,  each  having  a  voice  in  the 
government,  has  given  rise  to  much  of  our  present 
difficulty;  for  whosoever  believes  in  these  separate 
classes,  each  with  a  voice,  inevitably,  even  although 
unconsciously,  tends  to  work,  not  for  the  good  of  the 
whole  people,  but  for  the  protection  of  some  special 
class  —  usually  that  to  which  he  himself  belongs. 

The  same  principle  applies  when  Mr.  Taft  says 
that  the  judiciary  ought  not  to  be  "representative" 
of  the  people  in  the  sense  that  the  Legislature  and 
the  Executive  are.  This  is  perfectly  true  of  the  judge 
when  he  is  performing  merely  the  ordinary  functions 
of  a  judge  in  suits  between  man  and  man.  It  is  not 
true  of  the  judge  engaged  in  interpreting,  for  instance, 
the  "due  process"  clause  —  where  the  judge  is  ascer 
taining  the  preponderant  opinion  of  the  people  (as 


APPENDIX  231 

Judge  Holmes  states  it).  When  he  exercises  that 
function  he  has  no  right  to  let  his  political  philosophy 
reverse  and  thwart  the  will  of  the  majority.  In  that 
function  the  judge  must  represent  the  people  or  he 
fails  in  the  test  the  Supreme  Court  has  laid  down. 
Take  the  Workmen's  Compensation  Act  here  in  New 
York.  The  legislators  gave  us  a  law  in  the  interest  of 
humanity  and  decency  and  fair  dealing.  In  so  doing 
they  represented  the  people,  and  represented  them 
well.  Several  judges  declared  that  law  constitutional 
in  our  State,  and  several  courts  in  other  States  de 
clared  similar  laws  constitutional,  and  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  Nation  declared  a  similar  law  affecting 
men  in  interstate  business  constitutional;  but  the 
highest  court  in  the  State  of  New  York,  the  Court  of 
Appeals,  declared  that  we,  the  people  of  New  York, 
could  not  have  such  a  law.  I  hold  that  in  this  case 
the  legislators  and  the  judges  alike  occupied  repre 
sentative  positions;  the  difference  was  merely  that 
the  former  represented  us  well  and  the  latter  repre 
sented  us  ill.  Remember  that  the  legislators  promised 
that  law,  and  were  returned  by  the  people  partly  in 
consequence  of  such  promise.  That  judgment  of  the 
people  should  not  have  been  set  aside  unless  it  were 
irrational.  Yet  in  the  Ives  case  the  New  York  Court 
of  Appeals  praised  the  policy  of  the  law  and  the  end 
it  sought  to  obtain;  and  then  declared  that  the  people 
lacked  power  to  do  justice! 

Mr.  Taft  again  and  again,  in  quotations  I  have 
given  and  elsewhere  through  his  speech,  expresses  his 
disbelief  in  the  people  when  they  vote  at  the  polls. 
In  one  sentence  he  says  that  the  proposition  gives 


232  APPENDIX 

"powerful  effect  to  the  momentary  impulse  of  a 
majority  of  an  electorate  and  prepares  the  way  for 
the  possible  exercise  of  the  grossest  tyranny."  Else 
where  he  speaks  of  the  "feverish  uncertainty"  and 
"unstable  determination"  of  laws  by  "temporary 
and  changing  majorities";  and  again  he  says  that 
the  system  I  propose  "would  result  in  suspension  or 
application  of  constitutional  guarantees  according 
to  popular  whim,"  which  would  destroy  "all  possi 
ble  consistency"  in  constitutional  interpretation.  I 
should  much  like  to  know  the  exact  distinction  that 
is  to  be  made  between  what  Mr.  Taft  calls  "the  fitful 
impulse  of  a  temporary  majority"  when  applied  to 
a  question  such  as  that  I  raise  and  any  other  ques 
tion.  Remember  that  under  my  proposal  to  review 
a  rule  of  decision  by  popular  vote,  amending  or  con 
struing,  to  that  extent,  the  Constitution,  would  cer 
tainly  take  at  least  two  years  from  the  time  of  the 
election  of  the  Legislature  which  passed  the  act. 
Now,  only  four  months  elapse  between  the  nomina 
tion  and  the  election  of  a  man  as  President,  to  fill  for 
four  years  the  most  important  office  in  the  land.  In 
one  of  Mr.  Taft's  speeches  he  speaks  of  "the  voice 
of  the  people  as  coming  next  to  the  voice  of  God." 
Apparently,  then,  the  decision  of  the  people  about 
the  Presidency,  after  four  months'  deliberation,  is 
to  be  treated  as  "next  to  the  voice  of  God";  but  if, 
after  two  years  of  sober  thought,  they  decide  that 
women  and  children  shall  be  protected  in  industry, 
or  men  protected  from  excessive  hours  of  labor  under 
unhygienic  conditions,  or  wage-workers  compensated 
when  they  lose  life  or  limb  in  the  service  of  others, 


APPENDIX  233 

then  their  decision  forthwith  becomes  a  "whim"  and 
"feverish"  and  "unstable"  and  an  exercise  of  "the 
grossest  tyranny"  and  the  "laying  of  the  axe  to  the 
root  of  the  tree  of  freedom."  It  seems  absurd  to 
speak  of  a  conclusion  reached  by  the  people  after  two 
years'  deliberation,  after  threshing  the  matter  out 
before  the  Legislature,  after  threshing  it  out  be 
fore  the  governor,  after  threshing  it  out  before  the 
court  and  by  the  court,  and  then  after  full  debate 
for  four  or  six  months,  as  "the  fitful  impulse  of  a 
temporary  majority."  If  Mr.  Taft's  language  cor 
rectly  describes  such  action  by  the  people,  then  he 
himself  and  all  other  Presidents  have  been  elected  by 
"the  fitful  impulse  of  a  temporary  majority";  then 
the  Constitution  of  each  State,  and  the  Constitution 
of  the  Nation,  have  been  adopted,  and  all  amend 
ments  thereto  have  been  adopted,  by  "the  fitful 
impulse  of  a  temporary  majority."  If  he  is  right,  it 
was  "the  fitful  impulse  of  a  temporary  majority" 
which  founded,  and  another  fitful  impulse  which 
perpetuated,  this  Nation.  Mr.  Taft's  position  is  per 
fectly  clear.  It  is  that  we  have  in  this  country  a 
special  class  of  persons  wiser  than  the  people,  who 
are  above  the  people,  who  cannot  be  reached  by  the 
people,  but  who  govern  them  and  ought  to  govern 
them;  and  who  protect  various  classes  of  the  people 
from  the  whole  people.  That  is  the  old,  old  doctrine 
which  has  been  acted  upon  for  thousands  of  years 
abroad;  and  which  here  in  America  has  been  acted 
upon  sometimes  openly,  sometimes  secretly,  for  forty 
years  by  many  men  in  public  and  in  private  life,  and 
I  am  sorry  to  say  by  many  judges;  a  doctrine  which 


234  APPENDIX 

has  in  fact  tended  to  create  a  bulwark  for  privilege, 
—  a  bulwark  unjustly  protecting  special  interests 
against  the  rights  of  the  people  as  a  whole.  This  doc 
trine  to  me  is  a  dreadful  doctrine;  for  its  effect  is,  and 
can  only  be,  to  make  the  courts  the  shield  of  privilege 
against  popular  rights.  Naturally,  every  upholder 
and  beneficiary  of  crooked  privilege  loudly  applauds 
the  doctrine.  It  is  behind  the  shield  of  that  doctrine 
that  crooked  clauses  creep  into  laws,  that  men  of 
wealth  and  power  control  legislation.  The  men  of 
wealth  who  praise  this  doctrine,  this  theory,  would 
do  well  to  remember  that  to  its  adoption  by  the  courts 
is  due  the  distrust  so  many  of  our  wage-workers  now 
feel  for  the  courts.  I  deny  that  that  theory  has 
worked  so  well  that  we  should  continue  it.  I  most 
earnestly  urge  that  the  evils  and  abuses  it  has  pro 
duced  cry  aloud  for  remedy;  and  the  only  remedy  is 
in  fact  to  restore  the  power  to  govern  directly  to  the 
people,  and  to  make  the  public  servant  directly 
responsible  to  the  whole  people  —  and  to  no  part  of 
them,  to  no  "class"  of  them. 

Mr.  Taft  is  very  much  afraid  of  the  tyranny  of 
majorities.  For  forty-five  years  here  in  New  York 
State,  in  our  efforts  to  get  social  and  industrial  jus 
tice,  we  have  suffered  from  the  tyranny  of  a  small 
minority.  We  have  been  denied,  now  by  one  court, 
now  by  another,  as  in  the  Bakeshop  case,  where  the 
courts  set  aside  the  law  limiting  the  hours  of  labor 
in  bakeries,  —  the  "due  process"  clause  again,  —  as 
in  the  Workmen's  Compensation  Act,  as  in  the 
Tenement-House  Cigar  Factory  case,  —  in  all  these 
and  many  other  cases  we  have  been  denied  by  small 


APPENDIX  235 

minorities,  by  a  few  worthy  men  of  wrong  political 
philosophy  on  the  bench,  the  right  to  protect  our 
people  in  their  lives,  their  liberty,  and  their  pur 
suit  of  happiness.  As  for  "consistency"  —  why,  the 
record  of  the  courts,  in  such  a  case  as  the  income 
tax,  for  instance,  is  so  full  of  inconsistencies  as  to 
make  the  fear  expressed  of  "inconsistency"  on  the 
part  of  the  people  seem  childish. 

Well-meaning,  short-sighted  persons  have  held  up 
their  hands  in  horror  at  my  proposal  to  allow  the 
people  themselves  to  construe  the  Constitution  which 
they  themselves  made.  Yet  this  is  precisely  what  the 
Association  of  the  Bar  of  the  City  of  New  York  pro 
posed  to  do  in  the  concurrent  resolution  which  was 
introduced  at  their  request  in  our  Legislature  on 
January  16  last,  proposing  to  amend  the  State  Con 
stitution  by  a  section  reading  as  follows:  "Nothing 
contained  in  this  Constitution  shall  be  construed  to 
limit  the  powers  of  the  Legislature  to  enact  laws" 
such  as  the  Workmen's  Compensation  Act.  In  other 
words,  the  New  York  Bar  Association  is  proposing 
to  appeal  to  the  people  to  construe  the  Constitution 
in  such  a  way  as  will  directly  reverse  the  court.  They 
are  proposing  to  appeal  from  the  highest  court  of  the 
State  to  the  people.  That  is  just  what  I  propose  to 
do;  the  difference  is  only  one  of  method,  not  of  pur 
pose;  my  method  will  give  better  results,  and  will 
give  them  more  quickly.  The  Bar  Association  by  its 
action  admits  that  the  court  was  wrong,  and  sets  to 
work  to  change  the  rule  which  it  laid  down.  As 
Lincoln  announced  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision  in  his 
debates  with  Douglas:  "Somebody  has  to  reverse 


236  APPENDIX 

that  decision,  since  it  is  made,  and  we  mean  to  reverse 
it,  and  we  mean  to  do  it  peaceably."  Was  Lincoln 
wrong?  Was  the  spirit  of  the  Nation  that  wiped  out 
slavery  "  the  fitful  impulse  of  a  temporary  majority  "  ? 

Remember,  I  am  not  discussing  the  recall  of 
judges  —  although  I  wish  it  distinctly  understood 
that  the  recall  is  a  mere  piece  of  machinery  to  take 
the  place  of  the  unworkable  impeachment  which 
Mr.  Taft  in  effect  defends,  and  that  if  the  days  of 
Maynard  ever  came  back  again  in  the  State  of  New 
York  I  should  favor  it.  I  have  no  wish  to  come  to  it; 
but  our  opponents,  when  they  object  to  all  efforts  to 
secure  real  justice  from  the  courts,  are  strengthening 
the  hands  of  those  who  demand  the  recall.  In  a  great 
many  States  there  has  been  for  many  years  a  real 
recall  of  judges  as  regards  appointments,  promotions, 
reappointments,  and  reelections;  and  this  recall  was 
through  the  turn  of  a  thumbscrew  at  the  end  of  a 
long-distance  rod  in  the  hands  of  great  interests.  I 
believe  that  a  just  judge  would  feel  far  safer  in  the 
hands  of  the  people  than  in  the  hands  of  those 
interests. 

I  stand  on  the  Columbus  speech.  The  principles 
there  asserted  are  not  new,  but  I  believe  that  they 
are  necessary  to  the  maintenance  of  free  democratic 
government.  The  part  of  my  speech  in  which  I  advo 
cated  the  right  of  the  people  to  be  the  final  arbiters 
of  what  is  due  process  of  law  in  the  case  of  statutes 
enacted  for  the  general  welfare  will  ultimately,  I  am 
confident,  be  recognized  as  giving  strength  and  sup 
port  to  the  courts  instead  of  being  revolutionary  and 
subversive.  The  courts  to-day  owe  the  country  no 


APPENDIX  237 

greater  or  clearer  duty  than  to  keep  their  hands  off 
such  statutes  when  they  have  any  reasonably  per 
missible  relation  to  the  public  good.  In  the  past  the 
courts  have  often  failed  to  perform  this  duty,  and 
their  failure  is  the  chief  cause  of  whatever  dissatisfac 
tion  there  is  with  the  working  of  our  judicial  system. 
One  who  seeks  to  prevent  the  irrevocable  commission 
of  such  mistakes  in  the  future  may  justly  claim  to  be 
regarded  as  aiming  to  preserve  and  not  to  destroy 
the  independence  and  power  of  the  judiciary. 

My  remedy  is  not  the  result  of  a  library  study  of 
constitutional  law,  but  of  actual  and  long-continued 
experience  in  the  use  of  governmental  power  to  re 
dress  social  and  industrial  evils.  Again  and  again 
earnest  workers  for  social  justice  have  said  to  me 
that  the  most  serious  obstacles  that  they  have  en 
countered  during  the  many  years  that  they  have  been 
trying  to  save  American  women  and  children  from 
destruction  in  American  industry  have  been  the 
courts.  That  is  the  judgment  of  almost  all  the  social 
workers  I  know,  and  of  dozens  of  parish  priests  and 
clergymen,  and  of  every  executive  and  legislator  who 
has  been  seriously  attempting  to  use  government 
as  an  agency  for  social  and  industrial  betterment. 
What  is  the  result  of  this  system  of  judicial  nullifi 
cation?  It  was  accurately  stated  by  the  Court  of 
Appeals  of  New  York  in  the  Employers'  Liability 
case,  where  it  was  calmly  and  judicially  declared  that 
the  people  under  our  republican  government  are  less 
free  to  correct  the  evils  that  oppress  them  than  are 
the  people  of  the  monarchies  of  Europe.  To  any  man 
with  vision,  to  any  man  with  broad  and  real  social 


238  APPENDIX 

sympathies,  to  any  man  who  believes  with  all  his 
heart  in  this  great  democratic  republic  of  ours,  such 
a  condition  is  intolerable.  It  is  not  government  by 
the  people,  but  mere  sham  government  in  which  the 
will  of  the  people  is  constantly  defeated.  It  is  out  of 
this  experience  that  my  remedy  has  come;  and  let  it 
be  tried  in  this  field.  When,  as  the  result  of  years  of 
education  and  debate,  a  majority  of  the  people  have 
decided  upon  a  remedy  for  an  evil  from  which  they 
suffer,  and  have  chosen  a  legislature  and  executive 
pledged  to  embody  that  remedy  in  law,  and  the  law 
has  been  finally  passed  and  approved,  I  regard  it  as 
monstrous  that  a  bench  of  judges  shall  then  say  to 
the  people:  "You  must  begin  all  over  again.  First 
amend  your  Constitution  [which  will  take  four  years]; 
second,  secure  the  passage  of  a  new  law  [which  will 
take  two  years  more];  third,  carry  that  new  law  over 
the  weary  course  of  litigation  [which  will  take  no 
human  being  knows  how  long];  fourth,  submit  the 
whole  matter  over  again  to  the  very  same  judges 
who  have  rendered  the  decision  to  which  you  object. 
Then,  if  your  patience  holds  out  and  you  finally  pre 
vail,  the  will  of  the  majority  of  the  people  may  have 
its  way."  Such  a  system  is  not  popular  government, 
but  a  mere  mockery  of  popular  government.  It  is  a 
system  framed  to  maintain  and  perpetuate  social 
injustice,  and  it  can  be  defended  only  by  those  who 
disbelieve  in  the  people,  who  do  not  trust  them,  and, 
I  am  afraid  I  must  add,  who  have  no  real  and  living 
sympathy  with  them  as  they  struggle  for  better 
things.  In  lieu  of  it  I  propose  a  practice  by  which  the 
will  of  a  majority  of  the  people,  when  they  have 


APPENDIX  239 

determined  upon  a  remedy,  shall,  if  their  will  persists 
for  a  minimum  period  of  two  years,  go  straight  for 
ward  until  it  becomes  a  ruling  force  of  life.  I  ex 
pressly  propose  to  provide  that  sufficient  time  be 
taken  to  make  sure  that  the  remedy  expresses  the 
will,  the  sober  and  well-thought-out  judgment,  and 
not  the  whim,  of  the  people;  but,  when  that  has  been 
ascertained,  I  am  not  willing  that  the  will  of  the 
people  shall  be  frustrated.  If  this  be  not  a  wise  rem 
edy,  let  those  who  criticize  it  propose  a  wise  remedy, 
and  not  confine  themselves  to  railing  at  government 
by  a  majority  of  the  American  people  as  government 
by  the  mob.  To  propose,  as  an  alternative  remedy, 
slight  modifications  of  impeachment  proceedings  is 
to  propose  no  remedy  at  all  —  it  is  to  bid  us  be  con 
tent  with  chaff  when  we  demand  bread. 

The  decisions  of  which  we  complain  are,  as  a  rule, 
based  upon  the  constitutional  provision  that  no  per 
son  shall  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty,  or  property 
without  due  process  of  law.  The  terms  "  life,  liberty, 
and  property"  have  been  used  in  the  constitutions  of 
the  English-speaking  peoples  since  Magna  Charta. 
Until  within  the  last  sixty  years  they  were  treated  as 
having  specific  meanings;  "property"  meant  tangi 
ble  property;  "liberty"  meant  freedom  from  per 
sonal  restraint,  or,  in  other  words,  from  imprison 
ment  in  its  largest  definition.  About  1870  our  courts 
began  to  attach  to  these  terms  new  meanings.  Now 
"property"  has  come  to  mean  every  right  of  value 
which  a  person  could  enjoy,  and  "liberty"  has  been 
made  to  include  the  right  to  make  contracts.  As  a 


24o  APPENDIX 

result,  when  the  State  limits  the  hours  for  which 
women  may  labor,  it  is  told  by  the  courts  that  this 
law  deprives  them  of  their  "liberty";  and  when  it 
restricts  the  manufacture  of  tobacco  in  a  tenement, 
it  is  told  that  the  law  deprives  the  landlord  of  his 
"property."  Now,  I  do  not  believe  that  any  people, 
and  especially  our  free  American  people,  will  long 
consent  that  the  term  "liberty"  shall  be  defined  for 
them  by  a  bench  of  judges.  Every  people  has  defined 
that  term  for  itself  in  the  course  of  its  historic  devel 
opment.  Of  course,  it  is  plain  enough  to  see  that,  in 
a  large  way,  the  political  history  of  man  may  be 
grouped  about  these  three  terms,  "life,  liberty,  and 
property."  There  is  no  act  of  government  which 
cannot  be  brought  within  their  definition,  and  if  the 
courts  are  to  cease  to  treat  them  as  words  having  a 
limited,  specific  meaning,  then  our  whole  govern 
ment  is  brought  under  the  practically  irresponsible 
supervision  of  judges.  As  against  that  kind  of  a 
government  I  insist  that  the  people  have  the  right, 
and  can  be  trusted,  to  govern  themselves.  This  our 
opponents  deny;  and  the  issue  is  sharply  drawn  be 
tween  us. 

If  my  critics  would  only  show  the  same  sober  judg 
ment  of  which  they  declare  the  people  at  large  to  be 
incapable,  they  would  realize  that  my  proposal  is  one 
of  moderation  and  common  sense.  I  wish  to  quote 
the  remarks  of  William  Draper  Lewis,  Dean  of  the 
Law  School  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania:  — 

"To  a  lawyer  the  most  interesting  suggestion 
Colonel  Roosevelt  has  made  is  to  allow  the  people, 
after  consideration,  to  reenact  legislation  which  a 


APPENDIX  241 

court  decision  has  declared  is  contrary  to  some  clause 
in  the  existing  State  Constitution. 

"Any  one  who  has  been  asked  to  draft  specific 
amendments  to  State  Constitutions  will  hesitate  to 
condemn,  without  serious  consideration,  the  sug 
gestion  made  by  Colonel  Roosevelt.  To  take  a  con 
crete  instance:  The  New  York  Court  of  Appeals 
declared  the  Workmen's  Compensation  Act,  passed 
by  the  New  York  Legislature,  unconstitutional,  as 
depriving  in  its  operation  the  employer  of  his  prop 
erty  without  due  process  of  law.  A  number  of  amend 
ments  to  the  New  York  Constitution,  designed  to 
validate  a  compensation  act,  have  been  drafted,  and 
it  is  not  unlikely  that  one  of  them  will  be  adopted. 
Personally,  one  or  more  of  these  amendments  having 
been  shown  to  me,  I  cannot  but  feel  that  constitu 
tional  amendments,  designed  to  meet  particular  cases, 
run  the  danger  of  being  so  worded  as  to  produce  far- 
reaching  results  not  anticipated  or  desired  by  the 
people.  Colonel  Roosevelt's  suggestion  avoids  this 
difficulty  and  danger.  If  a  persistent  majority  of  the 
people  of  New  York  State  want  a  workmen's  com 
pensation  act,  they  should  have  it.  But,  in  order  to 
obtain  it,  they  should  not  be  driven  to  pass  an  amend 
ment  to  their  State  Constitution,  which  may  have 
effects  which  they  do  not  anticipate  or  desire.  Let 
them  pass  on  the  act,  as  passed  by  the  Legislature, 
after  a  full  knowledge  that  their  highest  court  has 
unanimously  expressed  its  opinion  that  the  act  is 
contrary  to  the  Constitution  which  the  people  at  a 
prior  election  have  declared  to  be  their  fundamental 
law. 


242  APPENDIX 

"  I  may  not  always  approve  of  what  the  persistent 
majority  wants.  I  might  sometimes  think  the  meas 
ure  unwise.  But  that  does  n't  alter  the  right  of  that 
majority  to  enforce  its  will  in  government.  The 
Roosevelt  idea,  it  seems  to  me,  supplies  an  instru 
ment  by  which  that  majority  can  enforce  its  will  in 
the  most  conservative  way.  It  makes  explosions 
unnecessary. 

"I  would  have  been  very  proud  to  have  been  the 
author  of  that  plan,  although  I  want  to  emphasize 
the  fact  that  it  involves  no  new  principle,  only  a  new 
method. 

"I  don't  mind  saying,  however,  that  I  think  it 
unfortunate  that  it  should  have  been  proposed  by 
Colonel  Roosevelt.  He  is  a  man  of  such  marked  char 
acteristics,  and  his  place  in  the  political  world  is  such, 
that  he  arouses  intense  enthusiasm  on  the  one  hand, 
and  intense  animosity  on  the  other.  Because  of  this, 
the  great  idea  which  he  has  propounded  is  bound  to 
be  beclouded,  and  its  adoption  to  be  delayed.  It  is  a 
pity  that  anything  so  important  should  be  confounded 
with  any  man's  personality." 

As  regards  the  Dean's  last  paragraph,  I  can  only 
say  that  I  wish  somebody  else  whose  suggestions 
would  arouse  less  antagonism  had  proposed  it;  but 
nobody  else  did  propose  it,  and  so  I  had  to.  I  am  not 
leading  this  fight  as  a  matter  of  aesthetic  pleasure. 
I  am  leading  because  somebody  must  lead,  or  else 
the  fight  would  not  be  made  at  all. 

I  prefer  to  work  with  moderate,  with  rational,  con 
servatives,  provided  only  that  they  do  in  good  faith 
strive  forward  toward  the  light.  But  when  they  halt 


APPENDIX  243 

and  turn  their  backs  to  the  light,  and  sit  with  the 
scorners  on  the  seats  of  reaction,  then  I  must  part 
company  with  them.  We  the  people  cannot  turn 
back.  Our  aim  must  be  steady,  wise  progress.  It 
would  be  well  if  our  people  would  study  the  history 
of  a  sister  republic.  All  the  woes  of  France  for  a 
century  and  a  quarter  have  been  due  to  the  folly  of 
her  people  in  splitting  into  the  two  camps  of  unrea 
sonable  conservatism  and  unreasonable  radicalism. 
Had  pre-Revolutionary  France  listened  to  men  like 
Turgot,  and  backed  them  up,  all  would  have  gone 
well.  But  the  beneficiaries  of  privilege,  the  Bourbon 
reactionaries,  the  short-sighted  ultra-conservatives, 
turned  down  Turgot;  and  then  found  that  instead  of 
him  they  had  obtained  Robespierre.  They  gained 
twenty  years'  freedom  from  all  restraint  and  reform, 
at  the  cost  of  the  whirlwind  of  the  red  Terror;  and  in 
their  turn  the  unbridled  extremists  of  the  Terror  in 
duced  a  blind  reaction;  and  so,  with  convulsion  and 
oscillation  from  one  extreme  to  another,  with  alter 
nations  of  violent  radicalism  and  violent  Bourbon- 
ism,  the  French  people  went  through  misery  toward 
a  shattered  goal.  May  we  profit  by  the  experiences 
of  our  brother  republicans  across  the  water,  and  go 
forward  steadily,  avoiding  all  wild  extremes;  and 
may  our  ultra-conservatives  remember  that  the  rule 
of  the  Bourbons  brought  on  the  Revolution,  and  may 
our  would-be  revolutionaries  remember  that  no 
Bourbon  was  ever  such  a  dangerous  enemy  of  the 
people  and  of  freedom  as  the  professed  friend  of  both, 
Robespierre.  There  is  no  danger  of  a  revolution  in 
this  country;  but  there  is  grave  discontent  and  unrest, 


244  APPENDIX 

and  in  order  to  remove  them  there  is  need  of  all  the 
wisdom  and  probity  and  deep-seated  faith  in,  and 
purpose  to  uplift,  humanity,  we  have  at  our  command. 
Friends,  our  task  as  Americans  is  to  strive  for 
social  and  industrial  justice,  achieved  through  the 
genuine  rule  of  the  people.  This  is  our  end,  our  pur 
pose.  The  methods  for  achieving  the  end  are  merely 
expedients,  to  be  finally  accepted  or  rejected  accord 
ing  as  actual  experience  shows  that  they  work  well 
or  ill.  But  in  our  hearts  we  must  have  this  lofty  pur 
pose,  and  we  must  strive  for  it  in  all  earnestness  and 
sincerity,  or  our  work  will  come  to  nothing.  In  order 
to  succeed  we  need  leaders  of  inspired  idealism,  lead 
ers  to  whom  are  granted  great  visions,  who  dream 
greatly  and  strive  to  make  their  dreams  come  true; 
who  can  kindle  the  people  with  the  fire  from  their 
own  burning  souls.  The  leader  for  the  time  being, 
whoever  he  may  be,  is  but  an  instrument,  to  be  used 
until  broken  and  then  to  be  cast  aside;  and  if  he  is 
worth  his  salt,  he  will  care  no  more  when  he  is  broken 
than  a  soldier  cares  when  he  is  sent  where  his  life  is 
forfeit  in  order  that  the  victory  may  be  won.  In  the 
long  fight  for  righteousness  the  watchword  for  all  of 
us  is,  Spend  and  be  spent.  It  is  of  little  matter 
whether  any  one  man  fails  or  succeeds;  but  the  cause 
shall  not  fail,  for  it  is  the  cause  of  mankind.  We,  here 
in  America,  hold  in  our  hands  the  hope  of  the  world, 
the  fate  of  the  coming  years;  and  shame  and  disgrace 
will  be  ours  if  in  our  eyes  the  light  of  high  resolve 
is  dimmed,  if  we  trail  in  the  dust  the  golden  hopes 
of  men.  If  on  this  new  continent  we  merely  build 
another  country  of  great  but  unjustly  divided  ma- 


APPENDIX  245 

terial  prosperity,  we  shall  have  done  nothing;  and 
we  shall  do  little  if  we  merely  set  the  greed  of  envy 
against  the  gree(f  of  arrogance,  and  thereby  destroy 
the  material  well-being  of  all  of  us.  To  turn  this 
Government  either  into  government  by  a  plutocracy 
or  government  by  a  mob  would  be  to  repeat  on  a 
larger  scale  the  lamentable  failures  of  the  world  that 
is  dead.  We  stand  against  all  tyranny,  by  the  few  or 
by  the  many.  We  stand  for  the  rule  of  the  many  in 
the  interest  of  all  of  us,  for  the  rule  of  the  many  in  a 
spirit  of  courage,  of  common  sense,  of  high  purpose; 
above  all,  in  a  spirit  of  kindly  justice  toward  every 
man  and  every  woman.  We  not  merely  admit,  but 
insist,  that  there  must  be  self-control  on  the  part  of 
the  people,  that  they  must  keenly  perceive  their  own 
duties  as  well  as  the  rights  of  others;  but  we  also 
insist  that  the  people  can  do  nothing  unless  they  not 
merely  have,  but  exercise  to  the  full,  their  own  rights. 
The  worth  of  our  great  experiment  depends  upon  its 
being  in  good  faith  an  experiment  —  the  first  that 
has  ever  been  tried  —  in  true  democracy  on  the  scale 
of  a  continent,  on  a  scale  as  vast  as  that  of  the 
mightiest  empires  of  the  Old  World.  Surely  this  is  a 
noble  ideal,  an  ideal  for  which  it  is  worth  while  to 
strive,  an  ideal  for  which  at  need  it  is  worth  while  to 
sacrifice  much;  for  our  ideal  is  the  rule  of  all  the  peo 
ple  in  a  spirit  of  friendliest  brotherhood  toward  each 
and  every  one  of  the  people. 


CAMBRIDGE  .  MASSACHUSETTS 
U    .   S    .   A 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 
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